The Girl Who Lived
by RoniMikaelson
Summary: Hope Potter is a hero. She just didn't know it. Now, armed with the truth about who she is, she enters the wizarding world to attend Hogwarts. But nothing ever stays simple for her and she finds herself in the middle of a war. Making friends and enemies alike, she gives up her childhood in exchange for being a soldier in a war only she can win and bring peace to her new home
1. Bitter Endings and New Beginnings

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N I previously had a story entitled 'With A Spark In Her Eyes' that was a female harry potter. The problem: I barely changed anything except for (some) genders. This story will be different. There will be many changes and twists not in the original Harry Potter storyline. I hope you all enjoy my take on the female Harry Potter idea. Please review to tell me what you think, to ask any questions (I promise to get back to you as soon as possible if you have any) or just comments you wanted to share.**

 **P.S This is just a prologue, the chapters will get much longer and more detailed**

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When Hope Potter was born, she was loved. She had parents who would do anything to protect their baby girl from a horrid prophecy that declared her the destined enemy of the dark wizard Voldemort. She lived, out of sight and out of mind, in Godric's Hollow. The location wasn't ideal, but it was cozy and safe. The world around them was at war. They were hiding. They hardly knew who to trust anymore. Their friends were out fighting, dying, at the hands of a threat that no one knew how to beat. But James and Lily Potter had Hope, both literally and figuratively. When Hope Potter was born, she was the light that parted the overwhelming darkness in their lives and gave them some certainty in the confusion.

When Hope Potter was a year old, everything came crashing down around them. The safety they thought they'd had vanished. Unprepared to fight, they fell victim to Voldemort himself. Lily Potter begged him to spare her daughter, her baby girl, but Voldemort was merciless. He always was. With one short spell, Lily Potter died just as her husband had moments before and Voldemort turned his attention to the crying baby in the crib. But he didn't kill her. It wasn't for lack of trying, of course. In what would be told in hushed whispers all around the world for the next several years, the spell rebounded and Voldemort was gone. For a decade afterwards, no one would be able to say if he had run away, been injured so badly he was as good as dead or if he'd actually been killed. There were no witnesses to the legendary events that night. None except for a one year old baby girl in her crib, crying for her dead parents.

As the story spread and wizards all around the world celebrated the downfall of Voldemort, the baby girl was rescued from the half-destroyed house hours later. She was delivered to Albus Dumbledore as he waited on Privet Drive. The Muggle neighborhood was a far cry from Godric's Hollow. Unlike the rest of the world, it was quiet. No celebrations. No parties. No drinking and toasting to the baby they'd already dubbed 'The Girl Who Lived'. The Muggle world didn't know that a huge, terrifying threat had been neutralized. They didn't know that two innocent parents had been killed trying to defend their even more innocent child. Ignorance wasn't bliss; it was merely boring.

That night, she was left on the steps of her Muggle aunt and uncle's house. The only family she had left, no matter how horrible Professor McGonagall claimed them to be. That night, she slept peacefully, bundled up in blankets on the front step. She didn't know she was special. She didn't know that everything was changing. She didn't know that people were telling the story of her survival like it was a legend already. She just slept on, unaware.

When Hope Potter was three, she asked for her mommy and daddy. Aunt Petunia responded with a slap to the face and a night in her cupboard for asking too many questions. Hope sat in her cupboard on her old mattress and cried herself to sleep. She cried for parents she wanted so desperately to come and rescue her from what was supposed to be her home. But, after that day, she learned not to ask questions about her parents anymore.

When Hope Potter was five, her cousin Dudley was bullying her in class during art time. The teacher did nothing; it was easier to give Dudley his way than to spark an argument with his parents by sending home a note or calling them in for a meeting. Dudley pushed Hope to the floor, sneering and teasing her. It was his form of entertainment. His entertainment, however, ended quickly as all the paint around them exploded and coated Dudley. He started bawling, the tears almost helping to wash the paint dripping down his face. He blamed Hope, even if he didn't understand how it had happened without her touching any paint. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon blamed Hope too, even if they hadn't heard the whole story.

When Hope Potter was seven, she was swinging on the swing-set on the playground. She could swing higher than anyone else in her class. At seven, that was a major accomplishment. Naturally, Dudley didn't like that. As she was on the up-swing, a meaty hand enclosed around her ankle and yanked her off the swing. She hit the gravel below and scraped the skin off her hands, elbows and knees. Her glasses, only bought because the teacher informed her aunt uncle it was needed and if they didn't get her eyes checked there would just be questions, flew off her face. Dudley stomped on them, breaking them, and then walked away sneering. No one knew why that particular branch fell off the tree at that moment and hit Dudley in the head. Hope was blamed anyway.

On Hope Potter's tenth birthday, she dropped a plate as she was washing the dishes. It shattered on the tile floor and, the next thing she knew, Uncle Vernon was shouting at her and throwing her into the cupboard as punishment. That night, rubbing her bruised shoulder, she decided she was done. She was done crying. She was done being shoved around. She was done with everything. So she threw her meager belongings into her knapsack. She stole food from the kitchen. She stole money from the savings jar they'd tried to keep out of her reach for that very reason. Then she left the house and set off walking down the sidewalk. Any place was better than her so-called home.

No missing persons report was filed. No one looked for her. Perhaps teachers questioned why she wasn't in school months later. But no one cared enough to look for her or shed a tear for a missing little girl. She had money, she had food and she had plans to never return to Privet Drive.

On Hope Potter's tenth birthday, she turned her back on Privet Drive and began making her own way in the world.


	2. Secrets Revealed

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N Longer chapter this time. I hope you all enjoy. Please leave a review and tell me what you think about this chapter, the story in general or anything else. Enjoy!**

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Hope would be a liar if she said she didn't dream about what her life would be like if she had parents. She tried to imagine them sometimes. She tried to imagine who she got her fiery red hair from or her bright green eyes or her lean figure. She tried to imagine their voices or what they would've told her in her times of trouble. It was a useless pursuit, but it kept her mind busy.

Her feet pounded the sidewalk, aching inside of her boots, with her knapsack hanging from her shoulders. The sun had set long ago and the streetlamps were on. Almost everyone was at home in bed. Except for one family that had taken a vacation. Hope knew because she'd been at the park across the street as she watched them pack up, loudly and idiotically declare 'this will be the best week ever' and drive off. Was it weird to watch them? Maybe. Was it useful to go into their house while they were gone? Definitely.

Hope didn't like breaking laws. Laws were there for a reason, after all. But the nearly-eleven year old liked surviving far more than being a good, law-abiding citizen. So she did what she had to do and never told a soul. Mostly because the only soul she had to tell was old Maggie O'Grady at the local soup kitchen who hardly listened to her anyway and only talked about her nine cats and newly deceased husband number five.

Circling around to the back garden, Hope reached over the fence to unlatch the gate. She slipped inside and latched it behind her before turning her attention to the real difficulty: getting inside. Hope had learned that people rarely kept their upper story windows locked. The vacationing family had a back porch as well. Taking a deep breath, Hope climbed up onto the railing. Then onto the porch roof. Then, walking carefully and cat-like, she made her way to the first window. Sure enough, it was unlocked. She slid it open and tossed her bag inside. She grabbed hold of the windowsill and ducked and rolled inside. It was a near perfect maneuver, if she hadn't gotten tangled up in the curtain and face-planted inside of rolled. She'd done this little routine more times than she cared to admit, but she still made mistakes every now and again.

Sitting up and shaking herself off, she reached over to shut the window. As she looked around, she saw she'd come into what must've been the master bedroom. She didn't dare to turn on lights and alert the neighbors. Instead, she dug through her knapsack and came up with her flashlight. She shined it around and ventured further into the house. There were at least three kids in the family, she already knew. Two were much younger than her, but there was a girl around her age and size that lived there. After Hope located that particular girl's bedroom, she began rooting through the closet. Towards the back was an old, faded t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Given that they were in the back, she doubted the kid would notice them missing. If she did, she'd chalk it up to something other than a girl her size sneaking in and stealing her stuff.

With clothes in hand, Hope went back to the master bedroom and into the bathroom. She took her sweet time showering; the warm water washing over her felt better than she remembered. Soup kitchens and old alleys were a way to survive; being in an actual house was a way to live. Eventually, though, the hot water ran out and she was forced to enter reality once more. Getting dressed and picking up her flashlight again, she ventured further through the house and found her way to the kitchen.

She was careful not to take too much. One piece of bread, one slice of cheese, one slice of meat, just a little mustard. She ate her sandwich as she walked around the house, looking at everything. The pictures showed a normal, happy family. Their possessions said they were fairly well off, financially. Hope wondered if the kids knew how lucky they were or if they were just more Dudley Dursley's, snobbish and bullying those less fortunate for kicks.

After Hope had finished eating her late dinner, she went back upstairs to the master bedroom. She clambered into the warm bed, took off her glasses and collapsed onto the pillow to fall into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

That morning, Hope woke up to a loud tapping sound. Instinct kicked in and she rolled off the bed, grabbing for her glasses. The sound was coming from the window she'd come in through the previous night. Edging forward, she pulled the curtain away to peek out.

An owl was perched on the windowsill, large eyes staring at her. A letter was in its beak and she saw an odd seal on it. She slowly opened the window and reached for the letter. The owl let her take it without biting at her, but she still backed up a few steps before she tore her eyes away from the bird to look at the letter instead. Pushing her glasses up her nose, she read what was written in neat handwriting and green ink on the envelope:

 _Ms. H. Potter_

 _5 Wilkin Avenue, Surrey_

Hope stared at it in shock. How could anyone know where she was? She wasn't supposed to be there at all. If anyone knew she was...

She tore up the envelope and tossed it into the nearest trashcan, piling the other trash over it to hide it. She shooed the owl way. It looked distinctly annoyed, but flew off. In a near panic, Hope ran around collecting her things and setting everything the way she'd found it. She climbed out of the window, barely remembering to shut it again behind her, and rushed to climbed down again. Stumbling over her own feet, she rushed out of the garden. It was too early for anyone else to be out and about, so she didn't hesitate to run across the street and throw herself behind cover of the trees near the park.

Someone had known where she was. And sent an owl, of all things, to alert her? She wished she'd bothered to read the letter, but there was no going back now. Someone was following her, she was sure. Hope took a breath to steady herself and then took off again.

* * *

Hope spent the next several days dodging owls. It was the weirdest thing she'd ever done. Every time she thought she'd lost whoever was following her, another owl showed up with an address of 'third alley to the left so-and-so store' or 'third swing in this-and-this park'. It was as infuriating as it was terrifying.

It wasn't like she could go to the police with her problem, either. They wouldn't believe a ten year old girl's story about owls following her. Besides, they'd probably shove her right back with the Dursley's the second they found out why she was on her own. She would have to deal with the matter herself... Somehow...

It was the night of July 30th when everything came to a head. Hope sat on a swing in a park, which was her go-to place to relax and rest. She twisted her watch around her wrist and saw it was nearly midnight. Her birthday was July 31st. She would be eleven in mere minutes. It also marked three hundred and sixty five days without the Dursley's. She was still alive. She was okay, mostly. It was a big accomplishment for her.

The minutes ticked down. She thought about the strange owls and letters. Maybe she should go further. Not just hang around the London area but really branch out. She got sneak aboard a boat to out of England if she had to. It would be a grand adventure.

Five minutes to go. She swung herself a bit to get the swing going. She wondered what she would do tomorrow to celebrate. Maybe she'd splurge, dig out the little money she had left and buy herself a doughnut. Just the thought made her mouth water. How long had it been since she'd had something sweet?

Four minutes to go. Turning eleven years old was a big deal. Would she feel different when she turned eleven? Would something magically happen. She doubted it. Magic didn't exist. She was mature enough to admit that to herself.

Three minutes to go. In a couple of years, she'd be old enough to get a job and start actually earning money. When she was eighteen, she'd buy her own place, hopefully. She wondered what that would be like: actually being an adult with a place to live.

Two minutes to go. Was someone coming up behind her? She thought she heard something. She paused in swinging, her feet scrapping across the gravel below. She pushed her glasses up and looked down at her watch again. One minute to go. There was definitely someone coming up behind her; she could hear the loud footsteps. Reacting quickly, she dove off the swing and spun around.

A giant of a man was standing just behind the swing-set. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but Hope could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

"An' here's Hope!" The giant boomed, smiling merrily down at her. Hope debated the situation. Then she turned tail and ran.

Her feet pounded against the gravel, the rocks shifting under her feet and keeping her just slightly off balance. She realized she'd forgotten her bag back where she'd come from, but there was no way she was turning back. There was no reason a giant of a man should've been approaching her at just after midnight in a park. The fact that he had called her by name spooked her, but not nearly as much as the man himself.

For a couple seconds, Hope thought she was going to make a clean break for it. Then she started to turn around to see if the man was following her. In that split second, she ran straight into a bench. Her knees hit the edge of it painfully, stopping her in her tracks and instead throwing her over the back due to her momentum. She landed on the grass on the other side, harder than she'd expected. The breath was knocked out of her lungs and she lied there, panting.

The beast of a man peered over the bench at her. The distance that had taken her a dead sprint and ten seconds to cross, he'd done in five seconds at a leisurely walk. She groaned and tried to force herself into a sitting position, her knees and back stinging from the impact.

"Shoulda' introduced myself..." The man muttered. "Sorry 'bout that."

Hope forced herself to her feet, grabbing onto the back of the bench to haul herself up. The man just continued to smile at her. There was no way she was out running him, so, mind racing, she tried to make sense of the situation.

"Who are you?"

"Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He held out an enormous hand. Hope hesitated, but then took his hand. He shook her whole arm.

"Great..." Hope began slowly. "I still don't really know who you are or why you're here."

"Call me Hagrid." He told her, settling down on the bench. It creaked under his weight. "Everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts."

Hope circled around the bench and went to sit on another, out of Hagrid's reach. Living on the streets was the best way to make one paranoid. Or give you an extra dose of common sense that many people lacked. She watched as Hagrid dug around in his coat pockets, looking for something.

"Yer a hard one to find, Hope." He said, not looking up from his search. Hope said nothing. "Odd place for you to be, eh? At this time? Well, Dumbledore said to find you, so I did."

"Someone wants to find me?" Hope asked, thinking back to the owls.

"Say, why aren't you with yer aunt and uncle?" Hagrid asked, looking up at her and ignoring her previous question. Hope bristled at the question. Who was this man to come up to her in the middle of the night and then ask why she wasn't with her so-called family? She straightened up and folded her arms across her chest.

"Because they were terrible. Running away was my best chance at surviving!" Hope informed him. Hagrid looked shocked.

"Wha...? Dumbledore never said... He must not've known..." He stammered.

"Who is Dumbledore?" She demanded.

"Blimey! You don't know? I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Dumbledore an' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"

"All what? I don't even know my parents names! Just that they died in a car crash and left me with my terrible aunt and uncle!" Hope shot back.

"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad!" Hagrid protested. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."

"Famous?" Hope scoffed. "I don't even get my face on a milk carton. No one cares about me! And you think I'm famous? You're crazy, man." She was done with this conversation. She jumped up from the bench and started towards her bag, sitting on the ground by the swings still.

"Now wait. Jus' listen!" Hagrid pleaded. Hope paused. He hadn't tried to do anything horrible to her. The least she could do was give him time to talk? But she didn't owe anyone anything. First rule of surviving on the streets.

But some distant, insane part of her took over and she turned around. He had found what he was looking for in his pockets and was holding out a box. She hesitated, but reached out and took it. Opening it up, she saw it was a cake with pink icing and the words 'Happy Birthdae Hope' written in green icing. Some part of her was thrilled. Someone actually cared about her birthday. Another part of her was wondering how on earth this man knew when her birthday was. There was a one in three-hundred and sixty-five chance of guessing, yet he'd come prepared and confident. If he knew that... He must know about her parents.

Hope sat back down on the bench, resting the box on her lap.

"Thank you." She told him honestly; it was the only birthday gift she ever remembered receiving. "Tell me. Tell me everything I obviously don't know." Hagrid ran his fingers through his wild hair before he began.

"Hope. Yer a witch."

"A what?" She asked in shock.

"A wizard, o' course." Hagrid told her. "An' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."

He held out one of the letters she'd been tearing up or ignoring the past few weeks. Finally, she reached forward and took it. It was addressed to her, but there was no location listed. Hagrid had been sent to hand it to her personally. She pulled out the letter and read it in the dim light.

 _HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

 _Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

 _(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

 _Dear Ms. Potter,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress_

Questions exploded in Hope's head. Either this was an elaborate joke or her entire life had been a lie up until that point. How many times had weird, un-explainable things happened around her and Aunt Petunia would blow up at her? How many times had Uncle Vernon tried to drill into her that there was no such thing as magic? He'd ripped up her books, even though they were from the library, if he saw they had anything to do with magic or supernatural things. Had that all been to hide something from her? She'd always thought they were just crazy, and maybe they were, but had there been another meaning to it all?

Hope squeezed her eyes shut, thinking. But her parents had died in a car crash. There was nothing magical about that. She voiced her thoughts to Hagrid and looked over just in time to see him practically seething with rage.

"A car crash? Kill Lily an' James Potter?! It's an outrage! A scandal! Hope Potter not knowin' her own story when every kid in our world knows her name!" He seemed to be speaking to himself. Hope desperately tried to get his attention back.

"But why? What happened?" The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.

"I never expected this." He said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Hope, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh... But someone's gotta. Yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'... Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh. Mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it... It begins, I suppose, with... with a person called... but it's incredibly important yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows-."

"Who?" Hope pressed impatiently. She'd waited to know about her parents since she was three years old.

"Well... I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."

"Why not?" Hope asked, annoyed. What was so bad about a name?

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Hope, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..." Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.

"Could you write it down?" Hope suggested, anxious to get on with the story.

"Nah. Can't spell it. All right: Voldemort." Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this... this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too. Some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Hope. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... Terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him. An' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway. Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side. Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an'... an'..." Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn. Hope jumped. "Sorry. But it's that sad... knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find... anyway... You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then.. an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing.. He tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh. Took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even. But it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Hope. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age. The McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts. An' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

She knew what he was talking about when he said 'mark'. She had a scar on her forehead that was hidden under her bangs. She had assumed it was from the car crash, just another reminder of the cruelty of the world. She rubbed her forehead absentmindedly as she took the whole story in. If it was fake, it was a practiced lie. If it was real... It was too much to take in.

Hagrid was watching her sadly.

"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Delivered yeh to yer family. Those Muggles."

"Those what?"

"Non-magic folk." He explained off-handedly.

"But what happened to Vol... sorry." Hope stopped at Hagrid's look. "I mean, You-Know-Who?"

"Good question, Hope. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful. Why'd he go? Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back. Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Hope. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on. I dunno what it was, no one does. But somethin' about you stumped him, all right." Hagrid looked at Hope with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Hope, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.

She wasn't some legendary savior. She was just Hope. Hope Potter, the girl with a virtuous name but none of the actual virtue in her. The girl who had no home. The girl who was didn't matter and greatest goal was to change that, but didn't know if she could. She wasn't a hero. She was a kid that had grown up too fast and wished she could change everything. But wishes weren't horses and beggars weren't riding. Not that night.

Hope stood up slowly, putting the box of cake on the bench. She turned to face Hagrid again.

"I'm sorry. But I'm not this girl you're looking for. I'm just Hope." She started to walk away, but Hagrid jumped up and easily kept pace with her as she headed for her bag.

"But Hope! Dumbledore told me to fetch yeh! Yeh can't leave now!" He protested hurriedly.

"I don't believe you!" She snapped at him. "I'm not a hero! So tell this Dumbldore guy that there was some mistake."

"But-."

"I'm leaving." She grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Hagrid was frantically trying to think up something to say.

"But yeh gotta believe me!"

"I don't." But there was hesitation there. Even Hagrid saw it. He dug through his pockets and came up with a piece of paper and what looked like an old fashioned quill.

"Wait a second here." He wrote something down on the paper and anxiously held it out to her. She paused, but then took it. "Meet me there tomorro' mornin'. Or tonight, if yeh like. I know yeh believe me."

Hope looked down at the address he'd scribbled down. It was some place in London, actually not that far. She looked back up at him and sighed.

"Maybe."

"Alright then." Hagrid didn't seem to know what else to do. It was obvious he hadn't been prepared for anything that had happened that night.

"Bye, Hagrid." Hope prompted and then turned and walked away.

* * *

 **A/N As you can see, this is a different character than what Harry was due to her decision to leave the Dursley's. I hope you enjoy the changes I've made so far If you have any questions, please feel free to review or PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you!**


	3. Brave New World

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Thank you to the reviewers that commented so far!**

* * *

The address led Hope to a place called the Leaky Cauldron. She stood outside the next morning, watching the other people around her walk straight past the tiny, grubby looking pub. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. Early morning traffic behind her made her head ache; as comfortable as old park benches were, she hadn't gotten that much sleep the night before. She had too many questions and not nearly enough answers.

Hope knew it was possibly very stupid to meet the weird, giant man in a pub of all places. But he knew things about her. Her knew her birthday, he knew her parents. He knew more about her than she did. If any of it was true, it would be even stupider not to press the subject and find out more. And if she was actually some sort of witch, she needed to know.

Steeling herself for whatever was to come, she pushed open the door and walked inside. She couldn't see why Hagrid would want to meet anyone there. It was dark, shabby and looked like it would fail any and all health inspections. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. Men were gathered around tables and laughing heartily at something that couldn't be that funny in reality. Hagrid was no where to be seen.

Hope walked up to the bar. If anyone noticed the eleven year old in the pub, no one said a word. She wondered just what she was getting herself into.

"Excuse me?" The bartender paused and turned to look at her. "I'm looking for someone named Hagrid? Seven feet tall, really hairy?"

"Oh, I know Hagrid. He's probably still sleeping. Mary!" The bartender snapped his fingers at a maid passing by. "Run up and tell Hagrid someone's here to see him. What's your name again, kid?" He peered down at her.

"Hope Potter." Instantly, the Leaky Cauldron went very silent. People turned in their seats to look at her with wide-eyes and gaping mouths. The maid, Mary, paused and stared for a minute but then rushed upstairs to go wake Hagrid.

"Bless my soul." The old bartender whispered. "Hope Potter... what an honor." He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Hope and seized her hand, tears in his eyes. "Welcome back, Ms. Potter, welcome back."

Hope didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at her; she'd never been the center of attention before, unless she was counting the time she'd made something odd happen in school and people wondered what was wrong with her. Looking around, Hope saw there wasn't judgment in everyone's eyes, but pure awe and amazement. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Cups fell from people's hands and clattered against the floor.

Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Hope found herself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Doris Crockford, Ms. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."

"So proud, Ms. Potter, I'm just so proud."

"Always wanted to shake your hand. I'm all of a flutter."

"Delighted, Ms. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."

Hope shook hands again and again; Doris Crockford kept coming back for more. She debated diving over the bar and escaping out a backdoor. But the attention proved one thing: Hagrid wasn't lying. She really was someone famous. You couldn't tell someone to fake the amount of amazement she was seeing from the bar-goers. Everything was real. She was in as much shock as everyone else as she continually shook hands.

A pale young man with a turban made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.

"P-P-Potter." He stammered. Hope noticed he didn't move to shake her hand, or get too close to her at all. "C-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."

Finally, Hagrid came lumbering down the stairs. He looked thrilled that Hope had arrived. He managed to get everyone to 'bugger off' and then ordered breakfast for the two of them. Sitting down at a table with their platters of sausages, eggs and toast, Hagrid grinned at her.

"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh. Mind you, he's usually tremblin'."

"Professor Quirrell?"

"That man o'er there." Hagrid motioned to the pale man with the turban, who was just slipping out the backdoor. "He'll be one of your teachers at Hogwarts. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag. Never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject now."

"Right. So... Hogwarts." Hope stuffed a forkful of eggs into her mouth to give herself time to think. "Tell me about this Hogwarts place."

Over their meal, Hagrid told her all about the magical boarding school. She listened intently, even though she never looked away from her quickly diminishing food. He told her about the Professors there, about what she would learn and, most of all, about how she was meant to go there. Her parents had gone there, it was the best school in the world in his opinion and she just _had_ to go. Hope debated that as she finished off her juice.

There were definitely pros, but there were also cons. Pro: she finally became the person everyone thought she was. A witch. Con: she had no idea what to do and was probably going to fail horribly. Pro: she would have a place to stay for roughly nine months out of the year. Con: she was probably going to fail horribly at being social after so long of not being. She'd probably be the odd girl out once again. Still, it would be a chance for her. A chance to change everything she hated about her life.

Hope set her cup down and leaned back against her chair, still thinking about it. Hagrid was watching her, long since done with his own meal.

"I don't have any money." She pointed out. School costed money. Tuition, books, supplies, room and board... She had twenty dollars stuffed down in the bottom of her bag, but that wasn't going to be anywhere near enough.

But at her words, Hagrid burst out laughing. His laughter shook her table and she had to steady the dishes to prevent them from falling off.

"Don't worry about that." Hagrid told her, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"

"But if their house was destroyed-." Hope began, recalling the story he'd told her the night before.

"They didn' keep their gold in the house! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank."

"Fine." Hope agreed. She was more eager than she cared to admit to see the magical world that she supposedly belonged to. Standing up, she grabbed her green hoodie and slipped it on again. She shouldered her knapsack and hurried to follow Hagrid. He paid for their meal at the bar and then took her out the back door. Hope found herself standing in a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds. She wasn't impressed.

Hagrid took out a pink umbrella from his massive pockets. Hope opened her mouth to question it, but Hagrid was already counting bricks and she left him be.

"Three up... two across." He muttered. "Right, stand back, Hope." He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered. In the middle, a small hole appeared... It grew wider and wide. A second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.

Hope peeked forward and saw that there was an entirely new section of streets and shops that wouldn't have fit behind the pub in a normal world. She wondered if the archway was some kind of teleportation device as well.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley." Hagrid announced grandly, grinning at Hope's amazement.

They stepped through the archway. Hope looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall. The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. People bustled around in odd robes. Owls hooted in the distance. Hope turned her head in every direction as she followed Hagrid down the street, trying to keep a sense of direction and look at everything at once. The shops, the things outside, the people... Everything was so strange and yet so oddly familiar that hope found herself at ease. Maybe this really was the place she truly belonged...

"Gringotts." Hagrid announced and Hope jerked her head around to see where they'd stopped.

They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was a small creature with large ears and pointed fingers. It was ugly, but it was like a car crash: Hope couldn't stop staring.

"Yeah, that's a goblin." Hagrid told her quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Hope, which was saying something since Hope wasn't exactly big for her age. He bowed them inside without a word. Hope was glad; she was feeling rather speechless at the moment and wasn't sure she would have been able to respond.

Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

 _Enter, stranger, but take heed_

 _Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

 _For those who take, but do not earn,_

 _Must pay most dearly in their turn._

 _So if you seek beneath our floors_

 _A treasure that was never yours,_

 _Thief, you have been warned, beware_

 _Of finding more than treasure there._

"Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it." Hagrid warned Hope. A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these.

Hagrid and Hope made for the counter.

"Morning." Hagrid greeted a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Ms. Hope Potter's safe."

"You have her key, sir?"

"Got it here somewhere." Hagrid muttered and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Hope watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals. She wondered how much those were worth in the 'Muggle' world she came from. As if reading her thoughts, the goblin weighing them shot her a look. She turned back around to face the goblin that was helping them.

"Got it." Hagrid said at last, holding up a tiny golden key. The goblin looked at it closely.

"That seems to be in order."

"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore." Hagrid added importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen." The goblin read the letter carefully.

"Very well." He said slowly, handing it back to Hagrid. "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!" Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Hope followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.

"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Hope tried to sound casual about it. Hagrid didn't fall for it.

"Can't tell yeh that. Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."

Griphook held the door open for them. Hope, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in, Hagrid with some difficulty, and were off. At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Hope tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering. It was like a roller-coaster ride but more intense.

Hope's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but she kept them wide open. Once, she thought she saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but it was too late. They plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.

It was the most amazing thing Hope had seen. She found it hard to believe she hadn't known about any of it until the night before. She wished she hadn't brushed Hagrid off the first time. She leaned over the side of the cart to get a better look around, but Hagrid grabbed her by the hood and pulled her back into her seat. He looked very green. She bit back a laugh at that. Maybe Hagrid wasn't so scary after all...

When the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling. Hope scampered out, readjusting her bag on her back. She felt a little dizzy, but was too amazed to be feeling sick.

Griphook unlocked the door in front of them. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Hope gasped aloud. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze coins.

"All yours." Hagrid told her, smiling. All hers... It was incredible. She had been sneaking into houses and shop-lifting small amounts of food. She'd been worried about surviving to the next week. And all that time there had been a small fortune belonging to her, buried deep under London.

Hagrid helped Hope pile some of it into black drawstring bag.

"The gold ones are Galleons. Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh."He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"

"One speed only." Griphook informed him matter-of-factly. He started to hand the key over to Hagrid, but Hope intercepted it to hold onto it herself. Neither of them said anything about it as they clambered back into the cart.

They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine and Hope once again peered over the side. Hagrid groaned and pulled her back by her hood again.

Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.

"Stand back." Griphook told them importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away. "If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there."

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Hope asked.

"About once every ten years." Griphook replied with a rather nasty grin.

"Seems logical..." She murmured sarcastically.

Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Hope was sure, and she leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least. But at first she thought it was empty. Then she noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Hope longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask. Hagrid wasn't going to tell her.

"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut." Hagrid told her.

One wild cart ride later, they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Hope didn't know where to run first now that she had a bag full of money. She didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that she was holding more money than she'd had in her whole life. Clothes, food, books... There were so many things she was dying to get her hands on. She didn't want to waste her money, but she also wanted to splurge for the first time in her life.

"Might as well get yer uniform." Hagrid made her decision for her, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Hope, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Hope nodded and entered Madam Malkin's robe shop alone.

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 **A/N A pretty boring chapter, but it was needed. I hope you all enjoyed. As always, please leave a review and if you have any questions don't hesitate to PM me or review and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you!**


	4. Live and Learn

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Thank you to the reviewers that commented so far!**

* * *

A bell jingled merrily above Hope as she entered. Immediately, a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve came hurrying over. Hope assumed that the witch was Madam Malkin.

"Hogwarts, dear?" She asked before Hope could even speak. "Got the lot here. Another young girl is being fitted up just now, in fact."

In the back of the shop, a girl with a pale face and obviously styled blonde hair was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up her long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Hope on a stool next to her, slipped a long robe over Hope's head, and began to pin it to the right length.

"Hello." The other girl greeted. Hope looked over at her. "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes." Hope agreed, not sure what else to say. The girl waited for continuation and, when none came, took matters into her own hands.

"My father's buying my books and mother's looking at wands." The girl waited again; Hope realized she was waiting for Hope to carry on the conversation. She wasn't good at conversations, but it was only going to get awkward if she didn't attempt it.

"This is my first stop." She explained.

"Oh, really?" The girl waited again for another response. Hope groaned silently; she hadn't held a conversation with a girl her age in over a year. She was remembering why in that moment. But she tried again to appease the other girl.

"I think I'll get my books next." She offered up.

"They should be really interesting. Just first year stuff, easy. But still." The girl chatted on eagerly, reaching up to run her hands through her silky blonde hair. Hope wished her own hair looked a bit better; she hadn't really had time to style it and had just thrown it up into a messy ponytail. Thankfully, the girl didn't seem to notice as she continued on: "Have you got a broom?"

"No."

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"No." Out of the corner of her eyes, Hope saw the girl tap her foot impatiently. She was just trying to be friendly, but Hope wasn't helping her cause. Hope bit back another groan and added: "I'm kind of new to this world." _Very new,_ she corrected herself silently, _as in within-the-last-twelve-hours new._ But she kept that part to her world.

"Oh, Muggle-born?"

"Um..."

"Muggle parents?" The girl prompted to help Hope out.

"Wizards parents. They died so I was raised by my Muggle family." _In the loosest sense of the word 'raise',_ she added to herself.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Hope sensed the girl was sincere, but that just made her uncomfortable. What was she supposed to say next? Thanks? It's no big deal? Thankfully, the girl didn't give her a chance to say anything at all. "Oh, mother would appalled at my lack of manners. I'm Cassiopeia Malfoy."

"Hope Potter." She bit back a comment about the mouthful of a name the girl had. At her own name, Cassiopeia's eyes widened.

"Are you really?"

"You're done, dear." Madam Malkin told Hope, with a knowing sort of smile. Hope nodded to her and thanked her. Turning back to Cassiopeia as she got off the stool, she attempted to end the conversation on a good note.

"I'll see you at Hogwarts, then?"

"Definitely." Cassiopeia agreed with a smile. Feeling she had done well with her first social interaction involving a witch her own age, Hope hurried out of the shop with her new robes to join Hagrid. Hagrid had brought her ice cream and she thanked him wholeheartedly, feeling the day was only getting better and better.

They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Hope found a bottle of ink that changed colors as the user wrote. The parchment was all boring, but she also found some pretty quills to buy. Hagrid offered to carry her bag of robes and box of parchment, quills and ink. Since she was already carrying her knapsack, she thanked him and let him.

They bought Hope's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather, books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk, books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Hagrid had to drag Hope away from a book on curses, which she thought she know for self defense if nothing else.

Hagrid wouldn't let Hope buy a solid gold cauldron, either, but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Hope, Hope found herself examining silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes.

Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Hope's list again.

"Just yer wand left. And I still haven't got yeh a birthday present." Hope felt herself go red in the face.

"Hagrid, you don't have to-."

"I know I don't have to." He smiled at her.

"Well, wand first." She suggested, hoping she'd have time to make Hagrid forget about it. She wasn't opposed to getting a present for the first time she could remember, but she didn't want Hagrid to buy her something when he'd already done so much for her.

The wand shop Hagrid brought Hope to was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read _Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C._ A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Hope looked around at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of her neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

"Good afternoon." A soft voice spoke from the shadows. Hope jumped, nearly dropping her knapsack. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hi." Hope greeted him awkwardly, shifting her weight on her feet.

"Ah yes... Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Hope Potter." It wasn't a question. Hope wondered if she as the only red-haired, green eyed girl in the wizard community or if this guy was just weird. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Hope. Hope wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy. But she perked up at the mention of her mother. Before she could ask anything about her, Mr. Ollivander was going on:

"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it. I's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Hope were almost nose to nose. Hope could see herself reflected in those misty eyes. She looked smaller and paler than usual. She hoped that was just from the lack of sleep. "And that's where..." Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Hope's forehead with a long, white finger. "I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it. Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."

He shook his head and then, to Hope's relief, spotted Hagrid.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"

"It was, sir, yes."

"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" Mr. Ollivander questioned, suddenly stern.

"Er, yes, they did, yes." Hagrid agreed, shuffling his feet. Hope raised an eyebrow at this new piece of information. "I've still got the pieces, though." He added brightly.

"But you don't use them?" Mr. Ollivander demanded sharply.

"Oh, no, sir." Hagrid said quickly. Hope noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.

"Hmmm..." Mr. Ollivander gave Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now, Ms. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Uh... Well, I'm right-handed."

"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Hope from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round her head. As he measured, he said: "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Ms. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

Hope suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between her nostrils for a reason she didn't want to know about, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

"That will do." He said and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Ms. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave." Hope took the wand and, feeling foolish, waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of her hand almost at once. "Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try-." Hope tried, but she had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander. "No, no... Here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."

Hope tried. And tried. She had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere... I wonder, now... Yes, why not... unusual combination... Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple." Hope took the wand. She felt a sudden warmth in her fingers that made her nervousness fade away. She raised the wand above her head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and green sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped as Mr. Ollivander cried: "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious... "

He put Hope's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering to himself about how curious it was.

"What's curious?" Hope questioned, edging closer to the odd man. Mr. Ollivander fixed Hope with his pale stare.

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Ms. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather. Just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother why, its brother gave you that scar." Hope must've looked as surprised as she felt, because Mr. Ollivander nodded gravely. "Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Ms. Potter... After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things. Terrible, yes, but great." Hope wasn't sure she liked Mr. Ollivander too much. She paid seven gold Galleons for her wand and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

As they walked down the street, Hope was so deep in thought about her wand that she almost missed the giant orange shape bolt out the door of the nearest shop.

"NO, CROOKSHANKS, NO!" The owner shouted from the doorway.

Hope dropped her knapsack and lunged for the creature, managing to secure her arms around it and heft it up. It was a large cat, or possibly a large, deformed tiger. Hagrid sneezed violently as Hope walked past him with the creature. The owner, a witch in almost normal looking slacks and a blouse, sighed in relief as Hope walked up to her.

"Thank you. Crookshanks' been here for ages; he's getting agitated. More trouble than he's worth, really." Hope didn't agree; the cat was ugly and obviously didn't listen, but that didn't mean he was worthless. In fact, he was cuddling up in her arms and purring contently.

"He seems sweet. Why doesn't anyone want him?" Hope questioned, though she had a feeling she already knew the answer. He was ugly. No one wanted an 'ugly' pet.

"He doesn't like many people. You're a rarity. You want him? Everyone takes pets to Hogwarts." The witch told her, seeming desperate to get rid of the cat. Hope shifted Crookshanks in her arms, considering it.

"Are students allowed cats?" She looked between the witch and Hagrid. Hagrid just sneezed again.

"Cats, rats, owls or toads." The witch listed from memory. Hope hugged the cat closer and he purred. She'd never had a pet. It would be like a built in friend at school. Besides, she knew what it was like to have no one want her around.

"I'll take him." She agreed.

"Why don' yeh get some things for him? I'll get yeh yer birthday present." Hagrid suggested, sneezing once more.

"Hagrid, you really don't have to-." But the giant was already walking away from Hope, smiling and sneezing as he went. Finally giving up on the matter, Hope followed the witch into the pet shop to get Crookshanks' things and pay for him.

The witch collected a wicker carrying basket, some food and bowls and set them all on the counter. She gave Hope a discount on Crookshanks since he'd been there so long. Hope thought she looked very relieved Crookshanks was leaving.

"How long has he been here?" Hope asked as the owner of the store put the smaller items in a bag.

"Nine, no... Ten years now. Don't worry; he'll live for much longer. Part Kneazles usually do."

"Kneazle?"

"Magical cat-like species." She explained offhandedly. "They're very intelligent and they guard their owners against untrustworthy people." Hope was grower fonder of Crookshanks by the minute. She thanked the woman, collected Crookshanks' things and then left the shop.

Hagrid was just coming back down the street and Hope remembered his quest to get her a birthday present. She prepared herself to act happy and excited even if it was something she didn't really want. As he reached her, he held out a stuffed animal proudly. It wasn't like any kind of animal she had ever seen before; it was some kind of mix between a platypus and a mole.

"It's a Niffler, that is." Hagrid explained as she took it. "Even got a little pouch in it, to hold your belongings."

"Thank you." She told him sincerely. She, surprisingly, did love it. It was the first gift anyone had ever picked out for her. Besides, she was never allowed any stuffed animals at the Dursley's and, on the street, she'd never thought to get a toy for herself. It was officially the best birthday gift she'd ever gotten.

Hagrid walked her back to the Leaky Cauldron. They had lunch together and then Hagrid helped her rent a room for herself until she left for Hogwarts. He apologized but said he had to leave and go home. They said their goodbyes and then Hope was left alone in Room 11 of the Leaky Cauldron. For the first time in her life, she felt at home.

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 **A/N And here we start to see some major differences. No Hedwig. Cassiopeia Malfoy is very different from Draco Malfoy, due to her gender and different treatment than Draco had in the original novels.**

 **I hope you all enjoy. Please review and tell me what you think.**


	5. The Journey Begins

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Thank you to the reviewers that commented so far!**

* * *

For the next month, Hope enjoyed herself more than she thought possible. She read through her school books, trying to give herself a head start before school began. She learned more and more about the wizarding world and didn't feel so out of place anymore. Crookshanks was a good companion; he was as loyal as a dog and didn't destroy anything if she left him in Room 11 alone for a while, which was more often than she liked as she had a number of other things to do. She helped Tom, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, with odd-jobs and he paid her well for it. She put that money in her vault, hoping to replenish what she'd taken and prevent herself from running out of money during the seven years she would be attending Hogwarts. But, as much as she put in, she found herself taking more out. She went into Muggle London to buy herself more clothes. She bought a book bag to replace her knapsack. In Diagon Alley, she bought a trunk for Hogwarts. When she wasn't reading, shopping or working, she familiarized herself more with the magical world. She browsed through books at the book stores in Diagon Alley, reminding herself over and over again that she didn't need anymore. The regulars in the Leaky Cauldron were so used to her that she was no longer mobbed anytime she showed her face and she ended up having brunch with many of them. They were always thrilled to teach her more about the wizarding world and her presence alone seemed to be reward enough for their time. Hagrid himself came at least once a week to check on her and have a meal with her.

But, all too soon and yet not soon enough, the month ended and September 1st was the next morning. Hope stayed up later than she should have in Room 11. She packed her trunk up and set out her clothes for the next day. Crookshanks was stretched out on her bed and she finally slipped into her pajamas for the night.

Nerves were eating away at Hope. It was actually happening. She was going to Hogwarts, which would be full of witches and wizards her age. She would be sorted into some house, all of which had their good and bad parts, though Slytherin seemed to be thoroughly disliked. She would either make friends for the first time or be the odd one out like every other time she'd tried to be social.

Hope turned off her light and climbed into bed, nudging Crookshanks towards the side so she could lie down. Her stuffed Niffler, which she'd decided to name Rascal for no particular reason at all, was propped up by her pillow. The pouch was much bigger on the inside than was normally possible and she kept important things in it, such as her vault key, the ticket Hagrid gave her for the train and some extra money. She pulled it closer to her, stroking it and feeling like a child again. But she was a child, she had to remind herself. An eleven year old given the chance to be normal, or as normal as one could be in the wizarding world, for once in her life. She intended to take it.

Rolling over, she fell into an uneasy sleep as she worried about the days ahead.

* * *

Hope was up by five-o-clock the next morning, too exited and nervous to go back to sleep. She dressed in her best jeans, t-shirt and boots. Throwing her green hoodie over it, she resigned herself to pacing until it was time to leave. She was more nervous than she ever remembered being. Was she smart enough to be at Hogwarts? Would anyone like her? Would she fit in?

Downstairs, she heard the workers of the inn moving around and she hurried down to join them and get breakfast. After she ate, she went out to the back alley to get into Diagon Alley. She wasn't allowed to use magic yet, but there was no actual spell-work involved in opening the gateway. She slipped through and made a bee-line for Gringotts as it opened. She exchanged some of her wizarding money for Muggle money and then headed straight back to the Leaky Cauldron.

Hurrying back upstairs, she managed to convince Crookshanks to go into his carrier with minor fuss. Gathering her trunk, the carrier and her shoulder bag, she gave Tom the room key back and headed out into the Muggle world again.

She reached the train station later than she wanted to; lugging around her trunk, cat carrier and book bag had slowed down her pace considerably. At half past ten, she stood where Platform Nine and Three Quarters _should_ have been. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and, in the middle, nothing at all.

Hope told herself not to panic. Panicking never helped. She had gotten a trolley to carry her things and she circled around it to grab her shoulder bag and root through it for her ticket. Sure enough, it said Platform 9 ¾. She looked back up at where it should've been and bit back a curse. No one had told her there was some kind of trick to getting onto the train. She'd been in the heart of the wizarding community for weeks and she'd never thought to ask about it. She could explain the rules of wizard Quidditch or state the reasons one would be sentenced to the wizard prison Azkaban, but there hadn't been anything in any of her books about getting to Hogwarts.

Hagrid must have forgotten to tell her something a wizard had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. Hope wondered if she should get out her wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten. It would draw attention, sure, but she couldn't miss the train.

At that moment a group of people passed just behind her and Hope caught a few words of what they were saying:

"Packed with Muggles, of course..." Hope swung around. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to five children, all with flaming red hair. Each of them was pushing a trunk like Hope's in front of them... and they had an owl.

Hope snuck after them, hoping to see the trick to getting onto the platform without having to admit she didn't know herself. They stopped and so did she, a little ways back but still close enough to hear what they were saying.

"All right, Percy, you go first." What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Hope watched, careful not to blink in case she missed it. But just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of her and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.

Hope crept closer so she wouldn't miss the next one.

"Fred, you next." The woman, their mother no doubt, motioned to one of a pair of identical twins. Another young, red-haired boy stood next to her, looking very annoyed with the situation. Hope guessed he wasn't old enough to go to Hogwarts yet.

"I'm not Fred, I'm George. Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?" The twin asked in mock offense.

"Sorry, George, dear."

"Only joking, I am Fred." The boy replied and off he went. His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone.

"You going to Hogwarts too?" Hope jumped; she had barely noticed the only girl of the group. She had the same red-hair and big blue eyes; she was just as tall as some of her brothers and had a lanky build that caused her jeans to be too short and her plaid over shirt too big. Both the mother and the younger brother turned to see who the girl was talking to.

"Oh, yes. I was trying to figure out how to get onto the platform." Hope explained.

"Not to worry." The mother told her kindly. Something about the woman put her to ease instantly. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Regina." The only girl, Regina, waved her forward with a smile.

Hope pushed her trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid, but she'd seen weirder things than a solid wall not being solid. She started to walk toward it. People jostled her on their way to platforms nine and ten. Hope picked up the pace, but her heart was still hammering in her chest. She broke into a heavy run... the barrier was coming nearer and nearer... She wouldn't be able to stop and poor Crookshanks was going to get the brunt of it when the trolley hit the wall... She waited for the crash, but it didn't come... She slipped right through the wall like it wasn't there, not even feeling anything as she stood in front of a scarlet steam engine. The train was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock. She had done it.

Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks. The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats.

Regina the red-haired girl came barreling through the platform, nearly colliding into Hope's trolley. Both managed to steer away before they collided. Regina laughed and threw her long pigtails over her shoulder.

"I'm Regina Weasley." She introduced herself.

"Hope Potter." As expected, Regina's jaw dropped.

"Are you really?" She whispered in shock. Thankfully, her mother and younger brother appeared through the wall and that cut off any answer Hope had.

"Can I go see the inside of the train?" The younger brother asked eagerly.

"Gavin, you'll be going _next_ year-." Their mother started in an annoyed tone; it obviously wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation.

"I'll take him to see and bring him back out." Regina interrupted immediately, forgetting momentarily about Hope. Taking that opportunity, Hope snuck off, letting Gavin's excited whoop fade into the background noise.

She pushed her cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat. She passed a round-faced girl who was saying:

"Gran, I've lost my toad again."

"Oh, Nadine."

A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.

"Give us a look, Lee, go on." The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.

Hope pressed on through the crowd until she found an empty compartment near the end of the train. She put Crookshanks and her shoulder bag in first and then started hauling her trunk up. Rolling it behind her was a lot different than trying to pick it up a good foot into the compartment, she learned quickly.

"Want a hand?" Hope looked up at the voice. It was one of the red-haired twins she'd followed through the barrier.

"Yes, please."

"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!" Hope was going to help them move it, but they brushed her off with a good-natured laugh and moved it in themselves. They had obviously had practice, as they expertly maneuvered it into a corner of the compartment.

"Thank you." Hope told them, brushing her bangs off her sweaty forehead.

"What's that?" One of the twins asked suddenly, pointing at Hope's lightning scar.

"Blimey. Are you...?"

"He is. Aren't you?"

"What?" She felt like she was getting whiplash from looking in between the two of them.

"Hope Potter." The twins chorused.

"Oh." Hope wondered how hard it would be to legally change your name in the wizarding world. "Yeah, I am." The two boys gawked at her like she had grown a third eye. Then, to her relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.

"Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, mum." With a last look at Hope, the twins hopped off the train.

Hope sank into a seat and unlatched the door to Crookshanks' carrier. The cat came slinking out, angry at being confined in the first place, but got over it just as quickly and settled down next to Hope. Hope undid her ponytail and then tied it back up again. Her nerves were getting to her again, so she looked around for a distraction. Other students, her age and older, were boarding the train and finding their seats. She wondered if anyone would want to sit with her.

Looking out the window, she saw the red-haired family was just about to get on. Their mother was giving them all a maternal talking-to Hope had never been on the receiving end of.

"Now, you two, this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've... you've blown up a toilet or-."

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet." One of the twins said.

"Great idea though, thanks, mum." The other added. Hope stifled a laugh with her hand.

"It's not funny. And look after Regina."

"Don't worry, ickle Gina-kins is safe with us."

"Shut up." The girl snapped harshly; she was nearly as tall as the twins and had a glare that matched her mothers. Both of them stopped immediately and clambered aboard the train without another word about it. Regina followed them, but all three leaned back out to let their mother kiss them goodbye. Regina hugged her younger brother tightly; he was looking near distraught that he wasn't going with them.

"Don't be upset, Gavin, I'll send you loads of owls." Regina told him.

"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat." One of the twins added with a grin.

"George!"

"Only joking, mum..."

The train whistle blew for a final time. The three siblings said goodbye one last time to their mother and brother and then leaned back in as the train began to move.

Hope sat back against her seat; she was officially on her way to Hogwarts. Houses flashed past the window as her excitement built up. She didn't know what she was heading towards, but it couldn't be any worse than the places she'd already been.

The door of the compartment slid open and Regina came in.

"Anyone sitting there?" She asked, pointing at the seat opposite Hope. "Everywhere else is full." Hope shook her head and Regina sat down. She glanced at Hope and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending she hadn't looked.

"Hey, Regina." The twins were back at the door.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train. Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Fine." Regina looked as though they had insulted her by informing her of the matter.

"Don't worry." One of them told her in the most patronizing voice Hope could imagine. "We won't let the big, mean spider hurt you."

"Just hold onto your blankie if you get scared, now." The other told her in the same tone.

"GET OUT!" Regina shrieked, shooting a worried look at Hope, as if she thought Hope was going to start teasing her as well. Despite the admittedly loud shriek from their sister, the twins just laughed and stayed where they were.

"Did we introduce ourselves?" The one twin asked more seriously, directing it at Hope. "Fred and George Weasley. This is our dear and only sister, the great Regina Wilhemina Weasley."

"The first girl in seven generations."

"Mother's little baby."

"The Princess of the Weasley Clan-." Regina put an end to their dramatic monologue by swiftly pushing them out the door and slamming it shut. They walked away, heads thrown back in laughter. Regina made a frustrated sound and collapsed on her seat again.

"Sorry about them. They think they're hilarious." Her tone suggested she thought otherwise. She looked out the window, looking like she was seething on the inside.

Hope debated the ways she could start a conversation. She still wasn't good at conversations, even with her time in Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron. Finally, though, Regina started the conversation for her.

"Are you really Hope Potter?" She blurted out, turning from the window to stare at Hope with her big eyes.

"Yeah." Hope didn't know what else she could add to that.

"Really? I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes." Regina explained all in one breath. Before Hope could interject, she was off on another rambling comment: "And have you really got... You know..." She pointed at Hope's forehead. Hope pulled back her bangs to show the lightning scar. Regina stared. "So that's where You-Know-Who-."

"I guess, but I don't remember it." Hope let her bangs fall back against her forehead. As if suddenly realizing she was still staring, Regina turned back and stared out the window again. Hope searched her brain for something else to talk about and remembered Regina's large family. "Are you the only girl in your family?"

"Yeah." Regina looked gloomy. "Six brothers. Bill and Charlie already moved out, but Percy, Fred, George and of course Gavin still live in the house."

"Are you close to Gavin?" Hope had always been interested in sibling dynamics; she'd never experienced them herself, after all. Regina smiled widely.

"Yeah. Bill and Charlie are really cool, but they're so much older. Percy doesn't have time for anyone, let alone his little sister. Fred and George are always with each other... Gavin's my favorite. You don't have any siblings, do you?"

"No." Hope admitted.

"Well, you're not missing out on much." Regina tried to lie, but failed horribly. It was obvious that, no matter how much she pretended not to, she loved all her brothers. Hope smiled at her failed attempt anyway.

"Thanks."

Something was wriggling in the pocket of Regina's plaid over-shirt. Hope was about to say something when a rat poked his head out. She was still about to say something when Crookshanks suddenly lunged for the creature. She yelled at him in panic, but it was too late. The rat had practically flown out of Regina's pocket and darted out of the compartment with Crookshanks tearing after him. Hope and Regina sprinted after them, tripping over each other in their haste.

They followed the pets down half the train before Regina, who was just slightly faster than Hope, managed to leap over Crookshanks and grab hold of her rat. She slammed into a group of students that hadn't noticed the minor crisis. Hope stooped to grab Crookshanks and held her cat to her chest as she and Regina looked at the angry students who had been knocked into. There were two girls and two very large boys.

"Watch it!" One pug-faced girl snapped at them.

"Sorry." Regina muttered, not sounding very sorry at all as she stuffed her rat back into her pocket.

"Oh, and she has a rat. Lovely." The same girl said with a roll of her eyes.

"Pansy, this is her." A familiar voice said excitedly. Hope peered around the girl, Pansy, to see Cassiopeia Malfoy was the second girl she'd previously overlooked. "This is Hope Potter. I told you I met her." She pointed at Hope with a smug 'I told you so' look on her face. Pansy's demeanor changed, slightly, as she looked down at Hope over her nose.

"Hmm... Why don't you leave Rat-Girl behind and come sit with us?" Pansy suggested in a fake sugary-sweet voice, nodding her head towards the compartment they stood in front of. Hope had known girls like her before. She'd never been friends with them, of course, but she was familiar with the type from her years at school. Hope also knew exactly how to put them in their place.

"No thanks. Cassiopeia, you're welcome to sit with us, though." She smiled brightly at the blonde and relished the look of offense and horror on Pansy's face. Girls like her didn't like thinking someone was better than them. Hope didn't know Cassiopeia that well and probably couldn't even spell her name if she had to, but she had a feeling she couldn't be worse than Pansy. Pansy, however, recovered quickly and spoke before Cassiopeia could.

"Don't sit with them, Cassiopeia. Obviously the trash of the world has already rubbed off on Potter."

"Hey!" Regina protested as Hope's jaw dropped in shock. "My family is. Not. Trash!"

"Oh, really? Hand-me-down clothes, more children than they can afford-."

"Take that back!" Hope hadn't realized she'd been the one to say those words until everyone was looking at her. She didn't regret it, though; fierce loyalty for her new friend, her _only_ friend, was already bubbling up in her.

"Or what?" Pansy challenged, stepping closer and towering over Hope. Hope dropped Crookshanks, knowing she was going to need her hands free. Crookshanks snaked around her ankles, snarling and hissing at Pansy.

"Stop it!" Cassiopeia protested in a panicked tone of voice and everyone turned around to look at her instead.

"Are you defending them? Oh, your father will be so proud." Pansy sneered sarcastically, her back to Hope. Hope was instantly reminded of her old cousin, Dudley; the tone, the face, the pride... It all screamed ' _bully'._ And Hope really hated bullies. She slammed her elbow into Pansy's back and the girl fell to the floor with a thump.

The two big boys beside her started glaring as Pansy screamed at the top of her lungs like Hope had pushed her off a cliff instead to the floor. And that was how the fight started.


	6. Making Friends and Influencing People

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N A double update because I have a lot written (almost done with the first book at the moment). I hope you enjoy. Thank you to all the reviewers so far. Please tell me what you think!**

* * *

To be honest, Hope hadn't actually been in that many fights. The few times she'd had to get all rough and tumble with her cousin, she had knocked him down and ran because it usually took more than one person to get that big boy back on his feet again. She'd run into quite a few mean kids on the streets, but she normally took to running away. She could scale a fence faster than anyone and that usually kept her safe. Now, however, there was no fence to scale.

The two boys that jumped to the bratty girl's defense were much bigger than Hope and Regina combined. As they charged forward, Hope braced herself for the impact, her arms flying up to shield her face. But neither one reached the girls. Cassiopeia jumped onto the back of one, distracting him sufficiently, and Crookshanks lunged at the face of the other.

Regina reacted faster than Hope did and jumped forward to knock the boy Cassiopeia had grabbed to the floor, along with the blonde that had helped them. The girls jumped up and regrouped together. The one boy and Pansy stood up to face them. The third still had an angry cat on his face.

The one large boy was nose to nose with Hope. She scrambled back a few feet. A meaty fist swung towards her face and she ducked under it. The momentum sent his fist into the hard window beside Hope's head and he howled in pain. She took the opportunity to send her own fist flying into his nose. There was a crunching sound under her knuckles and he stumbled back, slamming into Pansy.

The second boy had managed to peel Crookshanks off him and throw him away. Crookshanks hissed at him and took refuge behind Hope's legs. His victim had bleeding cuts all over his face. Hope smirked; man, she loved her cat!

The other two got up once again and the six kids stared at each other. Then Regina screamed some sort of war cry and everything turned into chaos.

Everyone was in a pile, screaming at the top of their lungs and hurling insults at each other that Hope didn't have enough focus to try and understand. She found herself wrapped around one of the boys' legs as he squirmed on the floor. Her glasses had been thrown somewhere, but she could make out the other boy sitting on Cassiopeia's back and Pansy pulling at Regina's hair. Regina just blinked in shock, obviously not used to the classic girl-fight move and responded by punching Pansy in the jaw.

Some part of Hope forgot that they weren't alone on the train, but she was reminded of this fact when she heard someone shouting at them:

"Break it up, break it up!" Naturally, the fight just increased in intensity.

The big boy managed to wriggle out of Hope's grip and his foot connected with Hope's teeth. She squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her hand over her mouth in pain. She didn't see his hand coming down towards her and got a fistful of her hair to yank her to her feet.

"Regina!" A familiar voice shouted and some part of Hope's brain realized that the twins were back. That was slightly reassuring, knowing that her new friend was going to be protected by her big brothers, but it didn't help her at that moment. The boy who held her drew his free fist back and she was trapped with by her hair.

Suddenly, a blur of pale blond hair collided with the boy. He didn't relinquish his hold on Hope's hair, so she was yanked to the floor with him as he and Cassiopeia fought. A streak of orange shot past Hope and she knew Crookshanks had gotten involved again. Stray elbows, knees and a bushy tail hit her as she frantically tried to get her hair free.

Then people were pulling all of them apart. Someone was yanking Hope back and handing her her glasses, which had miraculously survived the ordeal. Older boys were pulling Cassiopeia and the boy apart while three girls hauled Pansy back. One of the Weasley boys was shoving the other boy away while the twins contained a frenzied Regina.

As Pansy and her goons finally stalked off, Hope was released and she was able to look at the person who had grabbed her. It was another first year, with wild brown hair and dark eyes. He held Crookshanks as well, who actually seemed pleased with the arrangement. The boy smiled sheepishly at Hope and she saw he had rather large front teeth.

"Well, it was lucky that Mr. Granger alerted me." The oldest Weasley boy said stiffly, straightening his robes and pushing up his glasses. He nodded respectfully at the boy that had grabbed Hope.

The twins set Regina down, but she immediately tried to run after Pansy so they grabbed her again and held her back, kicking and screaming. The rest of the older students were laughing as if everything had been a lovely joke.

"Wow. They broke our record for starting fights so early." One of the girls said with a giggle.

"Well, Katie, we'll just have to up our game." Fred Weasley told her with a wink that made the girls roll their eyes.

"Are you alright?" The boy who had separated Cassiopeia and Goon Number 2 asked in concern. Once Hope assured him they were and Regina had calmed down, they all left Cassiopeia, Regina and Hope in peace. Except for a certain Mr. Granger, that was. Instead, he focused on Hope with a look of disapproval she didn't think she'd ever seen anyone under thirty years old manage.

"How could you already get into a fight?" He demanded.

"They insulted her family." Hope motioned to Regina, who was angrily tried trying to fix her hair. She wasn't even sure why she was defending herself to this stranger or why he was even so concerned about it in the first place.

"It's our first day at school!" He complained.

"So?" She had gotten into trouble the first day of school plenty of times before. She was officially classified as a 'troubled kid' before she'd even run away. Granger groaned through clenched teeth but then seemed to collect himself.

"Hermes Granger." He stuck out a hand. Hope shook his hand.

"Hope Potter."

"I know. I mean, I recognized you. I've read all about you." Hermes explained, pointing at her scar, which everyone could see as her hair was tossed back.

"Did you see their faces?" Regina interrupted with a snicker. She sobered slightly as she looked to Hope. "Thanks for that, by the way. Defending me."

"Of course." Hope returned, taking Crookshanks from Hermes to cuddle him in thanks. Regina turned to Cassiopeia.

"And you too, I guess. I'm Regina."

"Cassiopeia."

"You got a nickname?"

"No."

"Well, I'm going to call you Cassie from now on." Regina told her matter-of-factly. Cassiopeia looked oddly pleased, like no one had cared enough to give her a nickname before.

"Okay!" She agreed wholeheartedly.

"Let's go sit down." Hope suggested to the two other girls. She looked around to invite Hermes Granger to join them, to be polite if nothing else, as he had saved them from the fight. But he was stalking off, looking miserable, and she didn't get a chance to call after him before Regina was grabbing her arm and dragging her into the compartment with them.

* * *

The rest of the train ride was spent in peace, mostly. Regina and Cassiopeia, or Cassie as she was newly christened, argued like children for a bit, due to some family prejudice but they eventually were able to sit in peace.

Cassie came from a rich family of Pure-Blood wizards. She was just as vain as Regina was impulsive and Hope was anti-social. In another life, they might've hated each other, but they already had a fight and a new enemy in the form of Pansy Parkinson to bond over. Their pets, however, were a different story. Crookshanks hissed and snarled at Regina's rat, Scabbers, until Hope was forced to put him back in his carrier and he decided to pout in silence instead.

Hope and Cassie practically bought out the candy trolley when it came around and managed to convince Regina to join in, even though she was obviously self-conscious about her own lack of money.

Regina told Hope about the collectible chocolate frog cards and Hope got her first one, Albus Dumbledore. They had a Every Flavor Bean eating contest until Cassie almost puked and they decided it was best to stop. The three of them had sword fights with the licorice wands until they got too hungry and decided to eat them. Had it not been for her stinging scalp and bruised elbows and knees, it would've been the best day of Hope's life.

Hermes Granger eventually popped back around to remind them to change into their robes, but left again just as quickly, as if he were mad at Hope for something but not mad enough not to come tell her that. They obediently slipped on their robes over their muggle clothes, though, and nearly as soon as they'd done that, the train was pulling into the station at Hogwarts.

The trio crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor. Their luggage and pets would be collected later, someone assured them over an intercom Hope couldn't spot. The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Hope shivered in the cold night air and tugged her Hogwarts robes closer around her.

Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and Hope heard a familiar voice:

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Hope?" Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. Hope grinned back at him and nodded reassuringly. "C'mon, follow me. Any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Hope thought there must be thick trees there. Despite the darkness, Regina hurried along with sure steps, eager to get to Hogwarts. Cassie and Hope kept a little behind her, trying to make sure they didn't fall flat on their faces. Nobody spoke much. The girl that Hope had seen on the platform, Nadine, complained about losing her toad again.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec." Hagrid called over his shoulder. "Jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud 'Oh!'. The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black **l** ake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. It was even more amazing than Diagon Alley or Gringotts or anything else Hope had previously seen.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Hope **,** Regina and Cassie were followed into their boat by Hermes Granger, but everyone was too in awe of the sight before them to speak to each other. "Everyone in?" Hagrid asked. He had a boat to himself. "Right then. FORWARD!" And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass.

Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. Hope leaned over to look at the water and stick her hand in until, quite like when she'd been in the cart at Gringotts the first time, someone yanked her back up. It was Hermes, looking concerned for her. She rolled her eyes; would no one let her get better looks at things?

"Heads down!" Hagrid warned as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

Regina splashed cold water at Cassie for no particular reason. Cassie looked horrified at her new robes getting wet, so Hope splashed water right back at Regina. Regina dodged faster than Hope thought possible, probably a by-product of living with six brothers, and the water splashed Hermes Granger instead. He didn't look thrilled; the girls laughed at him but sobered up when he shot them a look and decided to step away from the water altogether.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Hagrid asked, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" Nadine cried blissfully, holding out her hands.

Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Hope's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall."

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit a whole house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Hope could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right; the rest of the school must already be in there. But Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Professor McGonagall's eyes lingered for a moment on Nadine's cloak, which was fastened under her left ear, and on the boy with Crookshanks-size claw marks on his face. "I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly." She left the chamber.

Hope swallowed hard and tried to remember anything she'd read about how someone was sorted. It was something to do with personality, though she couldn't remember anything else. She looked to her left at Regina and Cassie. Regina caught her look and knew immediately what she was thinking.

"There's some sort of test. Fred and George told me not to worry. Worst case scenario, I get sent back home as a pariah of the wizarding world."

"Nonsense. Father would've warned me if there were a test." Cassie told them immediately. Then she frowned. "Or at least he would've told Aries. He would've told me after, in that case."

"Aries?" Regina and Hope echoed.

"My brother. Baby brother. He's coming next year."

"Oh, mine too." Regina told her happily.

"Yeah, great, baby brothers are awesome. Back to the test." Hope put in hurriedly.

"A test?" Hermes Granger piped up behind them; he was tall enough to look over all of them. He had a expression of disbelief. "I didn't read anything about a test." He immediately started murmuring about the spells he'd already learned and Hope tried hard to block him out.

Instead, she kept her eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead them in. What was she going to have to do? Her heart was pounding in her ears and she wasn't sure eating all that candy had been a good idea after all.

Then something happened that made her jump about a foot in the air. Several people behind her screamed.

"What the-?"

About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying:

"Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance-?"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost... I say, what are you all doing here?" A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years. Nobody answered.

"New students!" The Fat Friar realized, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?" A few people nodded mutely. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house, you know."

"Move along now. The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall. "Now, form a line and follow me."

Trying to keep her wits about her, Hope got into line behind Cassie, with Regina right behind her. They walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a large pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

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 **A/N The actual sorting will happen next chapter. I hope you guys all liked this chapter. Comments, questions, etc. are all very welcome, so please review! Thanks for reading!**


	7. A Place Of Belonging

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N I think that, unless something comes up, I'm going to update two chapters every day. I have enough written to do that and am continuing to write, so I should be able to keep that up. So hopefully everyone has the time to check it out and read two chapters every day? I hope you guys do. Thanks in advance for reading. Please review and tell me what you think!**

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Hope had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up there, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Hope looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. She heard Hermes whisper:

"Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History." It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.

Hope quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. She had no idea what was going to happen, which was not a comforting feeling at all. She tried to console herself with the thought that even Hermes Granger and Cassie looked confused. Noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, she stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing:

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty, but don't judge on what you see, I'll eat myself if you can find a smarter hat than me. You can keep your bowlers black, your top hats sleek and tall, for I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat and I can cap them all. There's nothing hidden in your head the Sorting Hat can't see, so try me on and I will tell you where you ought to be. You might belong in Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart, their daring, nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart. You might belong in Hufflepuff, where they are just and loyal. Those patient Hufflepuffis are true and unafraid of toil. Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind, where those of wit and learning, will always find their kind. Or perhaps in Slytherin you'll make your real friends, those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends. So put me on! Don't be afraid! And don't get in a flap! You're in safe hands (though I have none) for I'm a Thinking Cap!"

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. Hope politely clapped her hands a few times, but she wasn't sure what she had just witnessed, if she was being entirely honest.

"So we just have to put on the hat? Father could've warned me." Cassie complained, folding her arms and bumping Hope with her elbows. Hope smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but she did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. She was better taking tests or doing something difficult in privacy.

Besides, the hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; they were all eleven and everyone around her was nervous. Was anyone feeling smart or brave or unafraid? She seriously doubted it. The fact that everyone else felt just as scared as she was comforted her more than she thought was normal.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward, holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!" A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause...

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat shouted. The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Hope saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat shouted again and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!" The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

'Brocklehurst, Mandy' went to Ravenclaw too, but 'Brown, Leland' became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers. 'Bulstrode, Millicent' then became a Slytherin, along with the boy Crookshanks had attacked, whose surname was Crabbe.

Hope was starting to feel definitely sick now. She remembered being picked for teams during gym at her old school. She had always been last to be chosen, not because she was no good, but because no one wanted everyone else to think they liked the weird girl.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Sometimes, Hope noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. Some students sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared their house.

"Granger, Hermes!" Hermes almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on his head. There was only a second or two pause.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Horrible thoughts were racing through Hope's head as the sorting continued. She tried to shut them all up. Panicking wouldn't help her. She had to just get up there and get it over with when her name was called. That was all there was to it. Still, her stomach was churning and she wanted to just hide away in some dark, safe place.

When Nadine Longbottom, still clutching her toad, was called, she fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Nadine. When it finally shouted 'HUFFLEPUFF' Nadine ran off still wearing it and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to 'MacDougal, Morag'.

"Malfoy, Cassiopeia."

Cassie swaggered forward when her name was called, looking pretty confident. Hope gave her a thumbs up of encouragement as he passed and even Regina smiled at her. She sat down and put on the hat. Three seconds passed before her house was shouted to the rest of the hall:

"SLYTHERIN!"

She grinned and went to join the correct table. Hope thought a lot of them looked unpleasant, but Cassie seemed pleased with herself and a few older Slytherins stood up to clap her on the back and greet her. Hope turned her attention back to the Sorting.

There weren't many people left now. 'Moon', 'Nott' and then Pansy Parkinson, who was sorted into Slytherin as soon as the hat touched her sleek black hair. Then a pair of twins, 'Patil' and 'Patil', then 'Perks, Sally-Anne' and then, at last:

"Potter, Hope!" As Hope stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"Potter, did she say?"

"The Hope Potter?"

The last thing Hope saw before the hat dropped over her eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at her. She was glad she was looking at the black inside of the hat instead.

"Hmm." A small voice murmured in her ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, my goodness, yes... and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... You're quite the cunning girl, aren't you? Ambitious... Resourceful..."

Hope gripped the edge of the stool until she was sure her knuckles were white. _Please, just put me somewhere,_ she begged silently. She couldn't take being told she didn't belong anywhere. She had to. She had nothing to go back to if she didn't have a place at Hogwarts.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Whispers broke out around the hall again as Professor McGonagall slowly took the hat off Hope's head for her.

"Potter? A Slytherin?"

"That's just wrong."

"Really?"

Even the Slytherin table, Hope saw as she walked shakily towards it, didn't seem to know how to react. Then a few cheered for her, led on by Cassie and the rest joined in. She heard some other students booing at her and tried to ignore it as she took her seat next to Cassie. She heard Fred and George shout something about a 'retry'.

Thankfully, the next student was called up and some amount of calm was restored. As the Sorting continued, Hope looked around at the people she already knew to gauge their reaction. Hagrid was sitting at the High Table and, when she caught his eye, he smiled at her as if nothing was wrong. She turned towards the Ravenclaw table and saw that Hermes, although appalled, didn't seem horrified like most did. Nadine Longbottom, at the Hufflepuff table, looked thrilled to be in any house at all. When she caught Hope's eye, she waved happily at her and then turned her attention back to her toad, trying to escape from her robes pocket.

Hope turned back to the High Table. In the center of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Hope recognized him at once from the card she'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Perhaps Hope was imagining it, but she thought he looked deep in thought and was artfully avoiding looking towards the Slytherin table. Hope spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron.

And now there were only a few people left to be sorted. There was another Gryffindor, another Ravenclaw and then it was Regina's turn. She was pale green by then. After only a second, the hat shouted:

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Her brothers cheered heartily for her as she ran to join them. Fred and George hugged her and her oldest brother reached across the table to pat her on the shoulder in congratulations. Regina caught Hope's eye and gave her a sad sort of smile. They were in different houses, but they could still be friends, Hope assumed. She just hoped she was right...

Zabini, Blaise became a Slytherin and then Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Welcome. Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Hope didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"Is he... a bit mad?" She asked Cassie.

"Probably. Potatoes?" Hope's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of her were now piled with food. She had never seen so many things she liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.

Hope loaded up her plate and began eating happily. After she'd swallowed her fourth forkful of sausage, she slowed down enough to speak to Cassie.

"Why did I get booed?" She asked quietly. Cassie paused, a fork full of steak halfway to her mouth. With a sigh, she set her fork back down and turned her head to look at Hope.

"You're a hero, Hope. The great Girl Who Lived. But Slytherin doesn't have a heroic reputation." She explained slowly.

"Then why are you happy to be here, if it's the 'bad house'?" Hope questioned.

"Because my family expected me to be. Maybe Father will be pleased..." Cassie mused. Then, realizing they were off topic, she added: "People say all the Dark Wizards come out of Slytherin and that we're all evil."

"Are we?" Hope pressed.

"Do I look evil?" Cassie asked honestly. Hope looked at her, the normal looking girl with beautiful hair and wise eyes. The girl who had fought her own so-called friends to defend them when they were getting insulted. No, Hope decided, Cassie wasn't evil.

"No."

"Thanks. Each house has a set of traits that the students either possess or greatly admire. That's why you can get whole families in one house, because they were all raised the same way. Now, Gryffindor traits are bravery, daring and chivalry. Classic hero traits. Father says they're all bigots. Ravenclaw traits are intelligence, wisdom and originality. Father calls them pompous. Always have their noses in a book. Hufflepuff traits are patience, loyalty and fairness. You don't want to hear what Father calls them. Slytherin traits are ambition, resourceful and cunning. Next to the good, smart, nice houses we're considered evil." Cassie paused in her monologue to take a drink of her pumpkin juice, then continued: "Although, to be fair, we have had a lot of dark wizards come out of this house. Just not all of them came from us."

"You don't get along with your father?" Hope asked, trying to sound casual. Cassie had mentioned her father three times in that little monologue, yet she sounded bitter every single time. Cassie's face fell and she tried to shrug the question off.

"Not really... He always wanted a son to be the Malfoy heir. He got Aries, the perfect fit to that fantasy. He didn't need to pay any more attention to the extra child. My mother still likes me though." Cassie added brightly.

"I like you too." Hope told her instantly, trying to cheer her up.

"I like you as well." She responded and Hope smiled back at her. They went back to eating for a moment before another question crossed Hope's mind.

"Can we still be friend with other houses?" Hope snuck a glance at Regina. She was laughing with her brothers across the hall.

"Maybe. But if we're going to be friends with a Gryffindor, be prepared for judgment. Gryffindors and Slytherins have been at odd since the school was built." Cassie explained. Hope liked the way she said 'we' so casually; it made their friendship seem more real.

"Are you willing to risk judgment to stay friends with Regina?" Hope asked with a smile. Cassie gave her a look of disbelief.

"Did I list 'self-conscious' as a Slytherin trait?" She shot back snarkily. Hope laughed and Cassie seemed pleased with herself.

"Although, there's a pattern here that you're not following." Hope warned. Cassie looked confused. "We're going to have to dye your hair red. Sorry, I don't make the rules." Cassie gasped and felt her pale hair, as if scared Hope had already somehow turned it red. Hope laughed and Cassie smacked her arm with a small smile.

As everyone finished eating, the remaining food on the platters vanished and were instantly replaced with deserts of all kinds. Although Hope had thought she was full, she decided she had room for some ice cream and pie.

As she was eating her last bites of desert, Hope looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Hope's eyes. A sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Hope's forehead.

"Ow!" Hope clapped a hand to her forehead.

"What is it?" Cassie asked in alarm.

"N-nothing." The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Hope had gotten from the teacher's look: a feeling that he didn't like Hope at all. "Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" Cassie turned to look around.

"Oh, that's Professor Snape. A friend of the family. He teaches potions. I didn't know you knew Professor Quirrell? My family and I ran into him in Diagon Alley that day I met you." She explained casually.

"Same for me..." Hope murmured absentmindedly. She watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at her again.

At last, the desserts too disappeared and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

"Ahem. Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins. "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

"Is he serious?" Hope whispered to Cassie.

"Maybe."

"That was a yes or no question." Hope hissed but Cassie was ignoring her.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried. Hope noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed. Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words. "Everyone pick their favorite tune and off we go!"

And the school bellowed:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, teach us something please. Whether we be old and bald or young with scabby knees, our heads could do with filling with some interesting stuff. For now they're bare and full of air, dead flies and bits of fluff, so teach us things worth knowing, bring back what we've forgot, just do your best, we'll do the rest and learn until our brains all rot." Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.

"Ah, music." He said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

The first year Slytherins were led by the Slytherin Prefect out of the Great Hall. They headed down a stone staircase so far that hope knew they must've gone under the school. Finally, they were stopped in front of a blank stone wall.

"Dragon Blood." The Prefect spoke clearly and, just like the entrance to Diagon Alley, the bricks moved out of the way to reveal a passageway. The Prefect led them through the short passageway and they came into the Slytherin Common Room. Hope looked around in awe. The whole room was bathed in dim, but comfortable light. Black leather sofas and chairs were grouped together in clusters. There were fireplaces on three sides of the rectangular room. Towards the green painted walls, there were tables and chairs with desk lamps to study at. There was probably enough room for all, or nearly all, the Slytherins to be there at one time. As Hope stepped into the room, she felt hardwood beneath her foot. The whole room gave a air of professionalism yet comfort.

Hope looked over at Cassie; her blonde friend was looking around the room in awe just like she had been. Catching her eye, Cassie smiled warmly at Hope. If this was the place they were to be spending much of the time in, that was more than okay with them. Hope wondered what the Gryffindor Common Room was like, or even where it was. Wherever it was, she hoped that Regina was just as happy with hers.

"Now, listen up!" The Prefect called, drawing everyone's eyes back to him. "Girls dormitories to the left, boys to the right. Boys who try to sneak into the girls dormitories will find it blocked by hexes. What those hexes will do will be left an unpleasant surprise until someone is foolish enough to try it. The password to the common room will be changed regularly and posted on the board." The Prefect pointed behind them. Turning around, they saw there was a regular looking bulletin board hanging by the passageway. There was already random postings hung on it. "Anyone who forgets the password will be left to sleep outside. Fair warning, it gets cold and the rats like to cuddle. Good night and welcome to Slytherin." On that hopefully meant to be humorous note, the first-years were left on their own.

Cassie and Hope made for the dormitories as the other students wandered around the common room or talked among themselves. To the left of the fireplace was a door that opened onto yet another stairwell leading down. Glancing at each other, Hope and Cassie started down. It was a short stairwell that left them in a small, circular room. Three doors were spread out evenly in the room. On the wall was a sign saying 'First Year Girls'.

"It must change for every year. The second girls would go to the second year dormitories and so on. It's a fascinating piece of magic." Cassie murmured in wonder. Hope, however, was more concerned with who they'd be sharing their dorms with. There were six girls, which meant there was two to a dormitory. She just hoped she'd be sharing with Cassie.

Luck was apparently on her side. The door to the left had the names 'Millicent Bulstrode and Pansy Parkinson' neatly printed on it, the door to the right had the names 'Daphne Greengrass and Sally Smith' and the one in the middle had 'Cassiopeia Malfoy and Hope Potter'.

Grinning at each other, they raced into their shared dormitory to look around. The first thing Hope saw was Crookshanks, who was waiting at the door, out of his carrier and looking displeased with her for keeping him waiting. She stooped to pick him up and pet him as she looked around her new bedroom for the majority of the year. Like the Common Room, there was hardwood floors and green walls. Unlike the Common Room, however, there was an actual window. But it didn't look out on the grounds; it looked out into the lake. Natural rock formation took up some of the view, but they could still see the water and fish on the other side of glass. Pressing her palm against it, Hope found it wasn't cold but actually warm. The whole room wasn't cold like she'd expected of the dungeon under the lake. It was warm and comfortable. The girls laughed in amazement when something that looked like a very large squid shot past the window. Tearing her eyes away from the view, Hope turned to look at the rest of the room. Two four-poster beds were against the wall opposite of the window, large and looking rather grand with silky green curtains around them. Their trunks and bags were at the ends of them, waiting to be unpacked. There was another door between the beds that led into a private bathroom for them. There were wardrobes and bedside tables on either side of the beds for each of them and built in shelves all over the room.

"This is better than my bedroom at the manor." Cassie said excitedly, sinking onto the mattress of her new bed.

"This is better than anything I've ever had." Hope murmured back, quiet enough that Cassie didn't hear her at all. Hope set Crookshanks down on the floor; he immediately jumped up onto her bed, at home already.

Too full, tired and happy to talk much more, they pulled on their pajamas, turned off the lights and crawled into bed.


	8. Day One Of A New Life

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

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 _Hope was running from her life. From what, she didn't know. But she knew she had to keep running. Down, down, down... The spiral staircase seemed to descend forever, making her dizzy as she ran in circles down it._

 _Something wrapped around her ankles and jerked her to a stop. She landed hard on the stairs, which had suddenly turned into a flat floor. Strips of purple material from Professor Quirrell's turban wrapped around her, trapping her arms against her sides. Above her, the hook-nosed teacher Professor Snape was laughing, high and cold._

 _The fabric turned into hissing snakes. Hope screamed as their red eyes focused on her. There was a burst of green light right in front of her eyes._

Hope woke up, sweating and shaking. She sat up, trying to remember where she was. She was in the Slytherin dormitory. She relaxed, slightly, brushing her sweat hair away from her face. Crookshanks was staring at her suspiciously from the foot of the bed. She sighed and rolled over, trying to go back to sleep.

"You should be getting up." Cassie's voice drifted to her. She sat up and squinted in the direction of the voice. She made out the blurry form of Cassie in the doorway of their bathroom, a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth. Tired of squinting, Hope grabbed her glasses and shoved them on.

"Huh?" She asked tiredly.

"We need to head up to breakfast before class starts." Cassie told her, taking the toothbrush out of her mouth.

"Oh." Right. The school actually had classes. Hope had nearly forgotten, as stupid as it sounded.

Cassie disappeared back into the bathroom, letting the door bang shut behind her. Hope rolled herself out of bed and pulled off her pajamas before replacing them with her uniform and robes. She managed to convince Cassie that they really did need to share the bathroom and get in there long enough to comb out her hair and tie it up into it's usual ponytail. She avoided the innumerable containers of hair products Cassie had to tame her already straight, silky hair. Instead, she headed back into the dormitory itself to put her schoolbooks into her bag. When Cassie emerged, her hair looked exactly the same as it had before her hour of 'taming' it. Hope bit back that comment, though, because she didn't want to get hexed her first day at school.

Together, Hope and Cassie managed to navigate the castle to get to the Great Hall in time for breakfast. Hope wasn't ignorant to the whispers following her, though.

"Did you see her?"

"The red-head with glasses?"

"Did you see her face?"

"Did you see her scar?"

"Is she really in Slytherin?"

"She can't be!"

By the time she reached the Great Hall, Hope was relieved to see a friendly face that wasn't gossiping about her: Regina. The Weasley girl was waiting for her friends, playing with her plaited hair in boredom. When she saw them, she perked up.

"Hey! Good news. Slytherins and Gryffindors have a lot of classes together." She announced, waving a class schedule in front of their faces excitedly.

"You already have your schedule?" Cassie snatched it from Regina to peer at it.

"Yours." Regina said pointedly, snatching her paper back. "Is on your table." Cassie huffed, rolled her eyes and went into the Great Hall to find her own. Regina turned to Hope with an eager smile. "How's the dorm? Damp? Moldy? Cold?"

"Quite nice." Hope shot back smugly. Regina seemed genuinely surprised. Before either could say another word, a loud voice behind them declared:

"A Potter in Slytherin? I couldn't believe it."

Hope turned around to look at the burly, curly haired first-year that strode straight up to them. Regina immediately rolled her eyes and grabbed Hope's arm.

"Let's go."

"I just want to talk." The boy said with mock-innocence.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Hope asked, not liking him at all.

"Cormac McLaggen." It wasn't so much an introduction as a grand announcement. Hope wondered if he expected them to bow to him.

"He's a Gryffindor." Regina whispered in her ear. "He's full of it."

"My father says that you're practically a legend." Cormac continued, oblivious to Regina's comment. "That you defeated Voldemort himself at a year old. Then you get sorted into his old house. Funny, huh?"

"Hilarious." Hope agreed dryly. She started to walk away with Regina, but Cormac was quick to throw himself in front of them and block their path. They were in the doorway of the Great Hall and a few people were staring. If anything, it just seemed to spur Cormac on.

"Do you remember any of it? Did you remember his face?"

"No." Hope tried to side-step him to get to the Slytherin table, or any table at all really. He blocked her path again.

"People have never seen him. Only his followers. Come on. You must remember what he looked like!"

"Nope." The word was casual, but Hope's tone made it anything but.

"People say you must be really powerful." He eyed her down his nose like he was doubting it.

"Problem?" Hermes Granger came scampering up to them. Cormac shot him a look and Hope suddenly felt like there was a fight about to break out. Unfortunately, Hermes was like a baby stick insect compared to Cormac, who was definitely a beetle. Remembering he had saved them on the train by calling in back-up for the fight, Hope leaped in between Hermes and Cormac.

"Cormac was just leaving." Hope hinted none-too-subtly, crossing her arms against her chest.

"I was just talking." Cormac defended himself. Hope knew his type as well as she knew Pansy Parkinson's; his type just liked to talk and make themselves look better. She hated his type just as much.

"Bye." Regina put in, making a 'shooing' motion with her hands. Cormac was turning red with a mixture of embarrassment at being shunned and anger for the same reason.

"Well... If you're a Slytherin... That must mean you're just as bad as the guy that killed your parents!" He sputtered, jabbing a finger at Hope. Hope felt Hermes jump against her back; she hadn't been there, both boys would've been wrestling on the floor. Thankfully, she was and managed to put an arm to stop him. Regina was starting for him, but Hope had other ideas. She turned around to the Ravenclaw table, grabbed a pitcher of some sort of liquid, she wasn't sure what, and threw it in Cormac's face. It was immature, but it was satisfying.

The teachers had the High Table were looking their way and Professor McGonagall was starting to get up. The trio immediately skittered away from the scene. Regina took refuge with her older brothers at the Gryffindor table, stifling laughter behind her hand. Hope gave Hermes a little push and then he snapped back into reality and escaped to the safety of the Ravenclaw table. Hope hurried to sit down next to Cassie at the Slytherin table. The blonde hadn't seen anything as she studied their class schedule intently.

Hope knew she'd made yet another enemy before classes had even started. But, catching Regina's eye across the hall, she knew she had a best friend too. Turning to Cassie, she caught her up on what she'd missed and the blonde just nodded approvingly.

* * *

Hope had expected classes to be hard. She hadn't expected _getting_ to classes to be hard, though. But, alas, her luck had to run out sometime. There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other and Hope was sure the coats of armor could walk.

The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech: 'GOT YOUR CONK'.

Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Hope, Regina and Cassie managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning. Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.

Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone, except perhaps the Weasley twins, and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick. Hope considered setting up Mrs. Norris and Crookshanks up for fight club in the dungeon, just for kicks.

Once you had managed to find the class, there were the lessons themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Hope quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words. They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up. Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Hope's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

Professor McGonagall was different. Hope had had the feeling she wasn't one cross and she learned she was right immediately. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermes Granger had made any difference to his match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermes a rare smile.

The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Sasha Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather. For another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.

Hope was very relieved to find out that she wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like her, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. If anything, her time at Diagon Alley had given her an edge many students didn't however. But, at the end of the day, there was so much to learn that even people like Cassie and Regina didn't have much of a head start.

Friday was the last day of classes before two days of peace. Or, more accurately, time to catch up on homework. But first there was another day to get through.

"What do we have today?" Hope questioned Cassie, who had memorized their weekly schedule.

"Double potions with Gryffindor." Hope perked up at that; the more classes they had with Regina, the better. There was hardly any time to hang out with friends during the week, especially not someone from another house. And Hope needed her friends; she'd already made a few too many enemies. Cormac, who she'd written off as an arrogant motor-mouth, seemed to be harboring a grudge. Every time she saw him, he was glaring at her like she'd kicked his dog. Pansy had never gotten over the fight on the train and was always flanked by her goons, Crabbe and Goyle. It was like she always expected a fight, or was waiting for the right time to start one.

Besides a bitter comment from the mostly friend-less Pansy Parkinson about how Regina was only friends with Hope and Cassie to 'try and get rich and famous by proxy', no one had really questioned the Slytherin-Gryffindor friendship the girls had. Hope noticed that a lot of people seemed to have inter-house friendships or even romantic relationships. It was a relief to her; she would've hated if she would've hated it if she was expected to give up one of her first ever friendships because of old prejudice.

Hogwarts seemed to be a fairly relaxed and normal place, for the most part. There were rules everyone was expected to follow. There were bullies. There were the popular crowd that were full of themselves. But that was all normal and expected. Hope, for the first time in a long time, felt like she had the freedom to just be a normal eleven-year-old girl. She surprised herself by remembering how to be a real kid at all.

As Hope ate her breakfast, the daily mail came in. Hope had gotten used it by Friday, but the first time it had been quite a surprise when about a hundred owls came streaming into the Great Hall during breakfast. The owls circled around until they found their owners and then swooped down to drop packages or letters into their laps. Hope didn't have an owl and, although she could always borrow one from school, she had no one to write to. Cassie had noticed and questioned it, but Hope had managed to distract her with a question about their classes.

The truth was, Hope hadn't told Cassie or Regina about her homeless situation. She figured that, when school ended for the year, she'd head back to the Leaky Cauldron again. She didn't want to see any pity in their eyes or have them tell any teacher. Eleven year olds weren't supposed to live on their own; she lived in fear that someone would send her to an orphanage or, worse, back to the Dursley's if they found out.

Her friends received near daily mail. At the Gryffindor table, she could spot Regina reading a letter from one of her family members. Her younger brother wrote her often, as well as her parents or the older brothers that had already graduated and wanted to congratulate her on making Gryffindor like the rest of the family. Beside Hope, Cassie had received another letter from her own younger brother. Aries was being groomed by their father to get a job in the ministry and be the perfect heir; he missed the sympathetic companionship of his big sister.

For the first time, an owl dropped a letter right next to Hope's plate. Hope glanced around, making sure it wasn't another one for Cassie or for the Slytherin next to her. But it was clearly addressed to her, so she opened it.

 _Dear Hope,_

 _I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week._

 _Send an answer back with the owl._

 _Hagrid_

Hope borrowed one of Cassie's eagle feather quills and wrote a quick 'yes, please' on the back of the note. She gave it to the owl and it flew off again to return to Hagrid.

It was lucky that Hope had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to her so far. At the start-of-term banquet, Hope had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked her. By the end of the first Potions lesson, she knew that she'd been wrong. Snape didn't dislike her; he hated her with a passion.

Potions took place in one of the dungeons, not that far from the Slytherin Common Room and Dormitories. It was colder there than up in the Slytherin dungeon, though, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. Snape, like Professor Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Professor Flitwick, he paused at Hope's name.

"Ah, yes." He said softly, looking up at her. She thought there was a flash of emotion across his face, like he was going to say something nice. She was wrong. "Hope Potter. Our new... celebrity."

Pansy snickered from the table right behind Hope. Hope fought the urge to turn around and stab the sharp point of her quill into Pansy's face. She figured that was the type of thing that might get her in trouble.

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels or bottomless pits into the underworld.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking." He began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word. Just like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. With Professor McGonagall, she used their respect. With Snape, he used their fear. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death... If you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

More silence followed this little speech. Hope and Regina, who had managed to snag seats together, glanced at each other with raised eyebrows. Cassie, to Hope's left, was on the edge of her seat and wide-eyed.

"Potter!" Snape called suddenly. Hope spun back around from looking at Regina. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Hope was caught off guard; she hadn't expected a question before anything had actually been taught. Her mind was going completely blank. Hopelessly, she glanced over at Cassie for help, but she was frantically flipping through her book for the answer and didn't see Hope's pleading look.

"I don't know, sir." Hope admitted finally. Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut... Fame clearly isn't everything." He ignored Cassie when her hand shot in the hair, her other hand marking the page with the answer in her book. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"The stomach of a goat." That much Hope remembered from looking through her books in her room at the Leaky Cauldron. Snape looked thoroughly displeased that she actually knew the answer.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"It's the same thing, just different names. Next question?" Hope was gaining confidence now. She had studied relentlessly in the hopes she wouldn't look stupid. It had paid off and Hope couldn't stop the smirk that graced her lips. Let Snape challenge her. She was actually ready. But smirking was the exact wrong thing to do.

"Why isn't everyone coping that down?" Snape demanded and there was a sudden rustle of parchment and quills as everyone frantically obeyed. Snape turned back to Hope. "And a point will be taken from Slytherin for your... _snark._ " He added decidedly.

"You wanted the answer, she knew the answer!" Regina protested before she could stop herself. Snape didn't even look at her; he was busy glaring at Hope. She thought he was trying to see something in her. She guessed it was fear of him. She didn't give him that satisfaction. But Snape did hear Regina, unfortunately.

"And a point from Gryffindor for mouthing off, Weasley."

Things didn't improve as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Cassie, who he seemed to like. Until, that is, he saw her smiling over at Hope and then he took another point from Slytherin for 'disrupting class' and immediately seemed to hate Cassie as much as Hope. That was so unfair that Hope was opening her mouth to argue, but Regina kicked her, hard, under their table and shook her head.

As the trio climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Hope was confused and angry. Why did Snape hate her so much? He'd singled her out from the moment she'd stepped foot in the classroom.

"Cheer up." Regina told her, throwing an arm around Hope's shoulders as they walked. "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George too. Can I come meet Hagrid with you?" Hope had told Regina and Cassie about her plans on the way to Potions.

"Hagrid? The groundskeeper?" Cassie put in, crinkling her nose in distaste.

"Sure. I'll introduce you." Hope told Regina. She looked at Cassie with a warning glare. "And you're coming to. He's nice."

"He's basically a servant."

"He's the first friend I ever made."

"Oh." Cassie said in a way that said she thought Hope's life was horrible indeed. Hope rolled her eyes and kept walking.


	9. Fly

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

At five to three, the trio left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door. Cassie's nose turned up in disgust. Regina and Hope gave her their best 'be nice' glare and she struggled to control her facial expressions.

When Hope knocked, they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying:

"Back, Fang, back." Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open. "Hang on. Back, Fang." He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.

There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it. Hope thought it looked cozy; Cassie looked like she wanted to bolt.

"Make yerselves at home." Hagrid told them, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Regina and started licking her ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.

"This is Regina Weasley and Cassie Malfoy." Hope told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.

"Another Weasley, eh?" Hagrid asked, glancing at Regina's freckles. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest. And Malfoy, eh?" Cassie turned around from she'd been examining the rock fireplace with a look of distaste. She plastered a smile on her face that didn't look completely fake as she looked at Hagrid.

"Hello." She greeted politely. If Hagrid had made any prior judgment about her, he seemed to be put at ease by that.

The rock cakes he served them were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but the trio pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons. Fang rested his head on Hope's knee and drooled all over her robes.

They were all delighted to hear Hagrid call Fitch 'that old git'.

"An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her. Fitch puts her up to it."

Hope told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Regina, told her not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.

"But he seemed to really hate me." Hope insisted.

"Rubbish! Why should he?" Yet Hope noticed he didn't meet her eyes when he said that. "How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Regina in what seemed like a very deliberate change of subject. "I liked him a lot. Great with animals."

While Regina told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Hope picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:

 _GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST_

 _Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day._

" _But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon._

"Hagrid." Hope began, drawing the giant's attention back to her. "A Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!" She watched carefully and saw there was no doubt about it: Hagrid definitely didn't meet Hope's eyes that time. He just grunted and offered her another rock cake.

Hope read the story again, with Cassie peering over her shoulder in curiosity. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?

As the trio walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Hope thought that none of the lessons she'd had so far had given her as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Hope?

* * *

The week after, it was announced on the Slytherin bulletin board that flying lessons would take place with the other first-years. Hope was excited for that; flying had been something she was looking forward to. Who wouldn't want to learn how to _fly?_

When Hope, Regina and Cassie headed onto the grounds for their first lesson, the breeze was cooling and it almost seemed like it was going to be a good day. Then they saw their newly sworn arch-enemies. Cormac was trying his best to impress Pansy with a grand story about how he once almost hit a muggle 'helli-cooper'. Pansy wasn't looking impressed, but Cormac kept talking, oblivious to it.

About thirty-five brooms were lying in neat lines on the ground in the grass. Their teacher, Madam Hooch, was watching everyone closely as they arrived. She had short, gray hair and yellow eyes like a hawk.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" She barked as she saw everyone had arrived. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Hope glanced down at her broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles. All of them seemed rather battered, but she didn't comment on it. Instead, she looked around and Regina was on one side of her and Hermes Granger was on the other. Cassie was next to Nadine Longbottom, who was quivering with nervousness.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom and say 'Up'!" Madam Hooch ordered from the front.

Shouts of 'up' rang out all around. Hope's broom jumped into her hand at once when she said it, but it was one of the few that did. Hermes's had simply rolled over. Looking to her other side, Hope say Regina trying again. It swung up handle first and smacked her in the nose. Hope couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"Shut up, Hope." Regina told her half-heartedly, holding her nose.

Finally, everyone had their brooms, either by getting them to fly up into their hands or by giving up and stooping down to pick them up themselves. Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Hope and Regina were delighted when she told proud little Cormac that he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard." Madam Hooch instructed. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle... three... two..."

But Nadine, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, girl!" She shouted, but Nadine was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle.

Hope saw her scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw her gasp, slip sideways off the broom and... WHAM! A thud and a nasty crack later, Nadine was lying facedown on the grass in a heap. Her broomstick was still rising higher and higher and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight. Madam Hooch was bending over Nadine, her face as white as hers. Everyone gathered around them worriedly.

"Broken wrist." Hope heard Madam Hooch mutter. "Come on, girl, it's all right, up you get." She turned to the rest of the class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear." Nadine, her face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around the girl.

No sooner were they out of earshot when Pansy Parkinson started laughing. Her goons and even Cormac joined in.

"Did you see her face, the great big baby?" Pansy sneered.

"Oh, shut up, Parkinson." Parvati Patil snapped.

"Oh, sticking up for Longbottom? Is she the only friend you can make, Patil?" Pansy shot back instantly.

"Look!" Cormac leaped forward and picked up what looked like a glass ball from the grass.

"That's Nadine's Remembrall!" Hermes cried, jumping forward. "Give that to me and I'll give it back to her."

"Why should we do that?" Pansy jumped in. "Why don't we leave it somewhere she'll find it? Say... Up a tree?"

"Give it here." Hope snapped, feeling suddenly protective of the poor Longbottom girl. Also, she wasn't opposed to getting into a fight with Pansy to show her she wasn't as high and mighty as she believed herself to be.

But Cormac, shooting a look at Pansy, grabbed his broom and sped upwards. He hovered a few feet up in the air, the Remembrall glinting in his fist.

"Come and get it!" He called smugly. Hope grabbed her broom.

"No!" Hermes shouted at her. "Madam Hooch told us not to move. You'll get us all into trouble."

"Stop being so interfering, Granger." Cassie snapped, glaring daggers at Cormac in the air.

Blood was pounding in Hope's ears. She mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up she soared. Wind rushed through her hair, sending it billowing out behind her. Her robes whipped around her. In a rush of fierce joy she realized she'd found something she could do without being taught. Flying was easy; flying was wonderful. She pulled her broomstick up a little to take it even higher; she heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Regina.

She turned her broomstick around mid-air to face Cormac. His face fell; he hadn't expected her to know how to fly.

"Give it to me." Hope ordered, taking one hand off her broomstick handle to reach for the Remembrall.

"Knock her off her broom!" Pansy shouted from underneath them. Cormac looked down at her and Hope saw him steeling himself for something stupid.

Before he could do anything, Hope leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands. It shot toward Cormac like a javelin. He only just got out of the way in time; Hope made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping. She felt adrenaline pumping through her. No one could say she was just a celebrity; she actually knew how to do something. It felt wonderful.

Cormac looked at her for a moment and then threw the Remembrall at her like a baseball. Hope dodged it but then streaked after it as it soared towards the ground, sure to be broken upon impact. Hope was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the Remembrall. Wind whistled in her ears, mingled with the screams of the people watching below; her hair was tangling as the wind swept it back from her face. She stretched out her hand. A foot from the ground, she caught it and jerked her broom straight. She toppled gently into the grass, the Remembrall clutched safely in her hand.

"HOPE POTTER!" Her heart sank faster than she'd just dived. She spun around to face McGonagall as the professor stomped towards her. She threw the Remembrall underhand behind her back and hoped that one of her friends would catch it. "Never... in all my time... at Hogwarts..." Professor McGonagall was nearly speechless as she stood towering over Hope. Her eyes were flashing furiously behind her glasses. "How dare you... Might've broken your neck..."

"It wasn't her fault, Professor-."

"Be quiet, Miss Patil."

"But Cormac-."

"And Pansy-."

"Never mind that, Weasley, Malfoy."

"Professor-."

"Enough, Granger! Miss Potter, that was completely irresponsible. You have never been on a broom before, you could have killed yourself. That said..." Professor McGonagall sighed. "Don't let it happen again and we'll let you off on a warning. Obviously, you weren't the only one at fault here." Professor McGonagall glared past Hope.

She turned to see Pansy, her goons and Cormac ducking their heads in shame. Regina held Nadine's Remembrall in her fist, glaring at the culprits. Cassie was hiding laughter behind her hand, eyes shining with admiration. Hope smiled at her and turned back to Professor McGonagall, sobering immediately at her expression.

"If something so irresponsible happens again, I will send everyone involved straight back home! Is that clear?" Everyone nodded, even the people who had nothing to do with the incident. Professor McGonagall had a way of making everyone feel guilty. Professor McGonagall nodded stiffly at the response and looked back down at Hope, adding quieter: "You have more of your father in you than I thought, Miss Potter. He was quite the Quidditch star as well." With a ghost of a smile, Professor McGonagall walked back towards the castle.

* * *

Pansy was still complaining, loudly, that Hope should've been expelled long after the lesson had ended. As everyone walked back into the castle, Hermes Granger caught up with the girls.

"You could've been killed-." He began.

"Thanks, Professor McGonagall." Regina scoffed at him, rolling her eyes.

"I'm serious!"

"You always are. That's why you're in Ravenclaw. You people always act like you've got a stick shoved somewhere unpleasant." Cassie retorted, flipping her hair back. Her hair smacked Regina in the face and the red-head choked on it.

"Was there something you needed, Hermes?" Hope questioned, trying not to laugh at her friends.

"Yes, actually, I wanted to show you something." He informed her.

"What?"

"Come with me." He hurried off, leaving Hope little choice but to follow him. Cassie and Regina trailed suspiciously after them. He led the girls into the trophy room. Glasses cases lined the walls with house cups going back hundreds of years and a countless number of medals for quidditch teams. Hermes seemed to know exactly where he was going, because he led Hope straight to an award proclaiming the Gryffindor team the winner of the cup over a decade ago. He pointed insistently at the names and Hope peered through the glass at it. One name jumped out at her immediately: James Potter, Chaser.

"My dad was on the Quidditch team?" Hope asked, staring at the name like it was somehow magical.

"Flying is in your genes." Hermes explained.

"What, you think you're good enough to get on the Quidditch team?" A voice sneered in the doorway. The quartet turned around to see Pansy and her two goons, Crabbe and Goyle, standing there. Hope rolled her eyes.

"What do you want, Pansy?"

"I wanted to issue a challenge."

"Oh?" Hope folded her arms across her chest, waiting.

"Tonight. Wizard's duel. Wands only, no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel, I suppose?"

"Of course she has." Regina put in immediately. "I'm her second; who's yours?"

"Crabbe. Midnight all right? We'll meet right here, it's always unlocked."

When Pansy and her goons were gone, Hope immediately turned on Regina.

"I don't know any fighting spells!"

"Neither does she. Probably." Regina didn't seem very confident in that.

"Being out of bed at midnight is against the rules." Hermes protested.

"Well, letting her think I'm scared is against my rules." Hope shot back.

"You have a plan?" Cassie asked hopefully.

"If I can't hex her, I'll punch her in the nose." Hope shrugged. Cassie looked disappointed in her.

"I'll research some spells for you." She offered instead.

"You'll all get in trouble." Hermes tried to protest again.

"What do you care?" Regina asked finally. "We're not friends." She reminded him and then tugged Cassie and Hope out of the room to plan for their Wizard's Duel.


	10. Fight, Flight and Fright

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hope couldn't sleep that night. She tossed and turned in her bed, annoying Crookshanks, who eventually went to lay down with Cassie instead. Cassie and Regina had spent their day giving her useless advice like 'if she tries to curse you, you should dodge it' or 'don't kill her, you'll get in trouble'. Amazingly, she'd assumed all of that already.

There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris. Hope was pushing her luck after getting away with just a warning during the flying lesson. But Pansy's leering, pug-like face wouldn't leave her alone. She couldn't pass up a chance to put the girl in her place.

Finally, it was half-past eleven. Hope woke up Cassie and they got ready to leave. They threw on their bathrobes, stuck their feet in their shoes and grabbed their wands. Slipping out of their dormitory, they cast a glance at Pansy and Millicent's dormitory. Hope knew Cassie was wondering the same thing as her: was she already there or still waiting to leave?

They slipped past her door and hurried up into the Common Room, which was still dimly lit by a few embers in the fireplaces. They slipped through the passageway out of the Common Room and started towards the stairs leading out of the dungeons.

Hope had barely gotten a foot before she tripped over something at the bottom of the stairs. She let out a yelp of surprise as she hit the bottom of the stairs and rolled over to see what she'd tripped over. It was Hermes Granger, wrapped up in blankets. He woke up and looked around, disorientated. Then he saw the two of them and narrowed his eyes judgmentally at them.

"You're really going to do it?" He asked in disbelief.

"What are you going?" Hope demanded.

"You're weird." Cassie accused, stepping over him to get to the stairs. She was shivering in her silk nightgown and robe and didn't look like she wanted to have this conversation at all. Hope scrambled to her feet, brushed off her sweatpants and glared down at Hermes.

"Go back to bed! We've got this."

"You're going to get hurt." He protested, struggling to get to his feet with the tangle of blankets wrapped around him. "Or, worse, expelled." He got to his feet and wrapped his blankets around him. He looked less like a baby stick insect Hope had originally compared him to and more like a baby turtle hiding halfway in its shell.

"Go. To. Bed." Hope commanded, hoping some pressure would make him crack.

"Not. Happening." He shot back in a tone that was almost mocking.

"Fine." Hope gave up; they were going to be late if they didn't hurry. Pansy was going to think she was too scared to show up. "Come with us."

"What?" Hermes and Cassie asked in near comical unison.

"He's not going to leave." Hope reminded Cassie. "And we need to go. So let's go." So, huffing and complaining, the three set off up the stairs together.

"Can I have some blankets?" Cassie asked after a minute.

"Here." There was a shuffling behind Hope as Cassie joined Hermes under the pile of blankets. Hope rolled her eyes. She was glad Regina was the one watching her back instead of them. Regina would be meeting them in the trophy room; Hope just hoped she hadn't forgotten and was sleeping through it instead.

The trio flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Hope expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room. Pushing the door open, Hope was relieved to spot Regina already there. Her hair was tied back in pigtails and her plaid pajamas hung on her like most of her clothes did. She spotted them and let out a sigh of relief.

"There you are! Why... Why did you bring a giant turtle?" She laughed at the sight of Cassie and Hermes huddled under the pile blankets.

"Hermes was sleeping outside the Slytherin Common Room. We had to bring him." Hope explained quickly, taking her wand out of her pocket just in case Pansy jumped in and started immediately. Regina laughed.

"You're a creeper." She told Hermes matter-of-factly.

"I'm trying to help you."

"You're not a helpful person, you're an interfering person." Regina accused.

"I'm just trying-."

"Shush!" Cassie interrupted suddenly. "Listen."

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Hope waved madly at the other three to follow her as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door on the opposite side of the room, away from Filch's voice. Hermes' blankets had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room. "They're in here somewhere. Probably hiding."

"This way!" Hope whispered to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch getting nearer. Hermes' blankets caught on the edge of a suit and, when they kept walking, the blankets caught and yanked the entire suit down with a clattering that could've woken the entire castle. All subtly was thrown out the metaphorical window and had hit the metaphorical cat, so Hope screamed 'run!' and they took off.

The four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following. They swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another. Hope was in the lead, without any idea where they were or where they were going. They ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.

"I think we've lost him." Hope panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping her forehead. Her hair was sticking to the back of her neck with sweat and she pulled her hair up with her hands as she caught her breath.

Cassie was leaning over a desk, panting so hard Hope was concerned. She wondered how much exercise the poor rich kid had done previously. The only sport she knew of in the wizarding involved sitting on brooms and they fought with spells; maybe being in shape was rarer in this world than the Muggle world. Behind Cassie, Regina was sitting on the floor, wheezing but in better shape than their blonde friend. Hermes was somewhat upright, leaning against a wall, and glaring at Hope like everything was her fault.

"I... told... you." Hermes gasped, clutching at the stitch in his chest. "I... told... you."

"We have to get back to our dormitories as soon as possible." Regina put in.

"Pansy tricked you." Hermes said to Hope. "You realize that, don't you? She was never going to meet you. Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room. Pansy must have tipped him off." Hope thought he was probably right, but she wasn't going to tell him that.

"Come on." Hope pulled Cassie along as they snuck out of the classroom. Unfortunately, getting to their dorms was easier said than done. They were on the far side of the castle from any of the house living spaces. They had a long, dangerous walk ahead of them.

Sure enough, they hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them. It was Peeves the Poltergeist, the most troublesome ghost of the school. He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves, please, you'll get us thrown out." Hope pleaded.

"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty." Peeves cackled.

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."

"Should tell Filch, I should." Peeves said in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."

"Get out of the way." Regina snapped, taking a swipe at Peeves. That proved to be a big mistake.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door... and it was locked.

"This is it!" Regina moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door. "We're done for! This is the end!" Behind them, they could hear footsteps. Filch was running as fast as he could toward Peeves's shouts.

"Oh, move over." Hermes tried to push Cassie out of the way.

"I know a spell-." Cassie started.

"So do I! Give me you wand; I left mine by my bed!"

"Get your own-!"

Hermes groaned and snatched Hope's wand out of her hand. He tapped it against the lock on the door.

"Alohomora!" The lock clicked and the door swung open. They piled through it, shut it quickly and pressed their ears against it, listening.

"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."

"Say 'please'."

"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please." Peeves told him in his annoying singsong voice.

"All right... please."

"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"He thinks this door is locked." Hope whispered. "I think we'll be okay." They turned around to lean against the door, sighing in relief. Then they saw a very good reason for why the door was locked in the first place.

For a moment, Hope was sure she'd walked into a nightmare. It was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far. They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden. They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs. It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them and Hope knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that. There was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.

Hope groped for the doorknob. Between Filch and death via three-headed dog, she'd take Filch. She managed to get the door open and the four of them fell backward. Hope and Regina managed to scramble to their feet and slam the door shut before the dog could try and stick a head out. Hermes used Hope's wand to mutter and spell and re-lock the door, though they were all fairly certain the flimsy look was more to keep things _out_ than to keep that thing _in._

They ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared. All they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. They only stopped once: for Hermes to thrust Hope's wand back into her hand before he took off up the staircase to Ravenclaw Tower. Regina split off from them to go to the Gryffindor Tower and Cassie and Hope were alone as they sped down into the dungeon. They barreled into their dormitory and dove into bed, like hiding under the covers would solve anything. For the rest of the night, Hope was too worked up to sleep. The judgmental looks her cat gave her didn't help.

* * *

It looked as though Pansy couldn't believe her eyes when Hope and Cassie came into the Common Room the next morning. The look on her face made the sleepless night completely worth it to them as they headed through the passageway out of the Common Room.

"Hey, Weasley, looking for spare coins?"

"The library's that way, Know-it-all!"

Coming out at the bottom of the stairs, the girls saw that Regina and Hermes were enduring bullying as they waited for them.

"Leave them alone." Hope groaned at the other Slytherins; the sheer amount of bullies in their house didn't help the bad reputation they had.

"Oh, you're friends with a Gryffindor and a Ravenclaw now? What's next, making out with a Hufflepuff?" Theodore Nott asked teasingly. The quartet ignored him and hurried past the other students towards the Great Hall.

"We were thinking about last night." Regina whispered conspiratorially as they walked.

"Did you see what that thing was standing on?" Hermes asked urgently.

"The floor?" Hope suggested dryly.

"My apologies, Granger, but I wasn't looking at it's feet. I was preoccupied with its three heads!" Cassie added harshly.

"No, not the floor." Hermes told Hope, completely ignoring Cassie. "It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something. Well... I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed. Or worse, expelled."

"You didn't have to come." Cassie reminded him.

"Yeah, we didn't lure you along with a carrot on a stick." Regina agreed.

While the three of them argued, Hope couldn't help but think about the trapdoor and what might be underneath it. Hermes had given her more to think about than he'd realized. The dog was guarding something... What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide... Except perhaps Hogwarts.

It looked as though Hope had found out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.


	11. Halloween

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

The next several days passed by peacefully, apart from the usual bullying and arguments that Hope had gotten used to. The days were turning cooler and Quidditch season was beginning. Hope knew the basics of it and Cassie and Regina filled her in on whatever she wanted to know. Quidditch was the only sport the Wizarding World had, which meant nearly everyone a fan by default. Cassie intended to try out for the Slytherin team the next year and was continually encouraging Hope to do the same. Hope, however, had other things on her mind.

Halloween was drawing near. Normally, it wouldn't concern Hope in the least. But Hagrid's words, from when they'd first met, had been echoing in her head. Her parents had died on Halloween night, exactly a decade ago. She couldn't bring herself to be happy about the holiday. She could only think about what would have happened if her parents were still with her.

For one, she would have adults that cared about her. The only person she had that fit that description now was Hagrid; whenever she missed having her family terribly, she'd ask him if she could come over and was always invited down for tea and rock-cakes. Fang never barked at her anymore, but instead rolled over for belly rubs immediately.

She did cheer up a bit when the scent of baking pumpkin wafted through the corridors. The Halloween feast at Hogwarts was, according to the older students, stuff of legend. But before the feast, there were classes.

They all went fairly well and were even getting more exciting as time went on, with the exception of History of Magic. It was during a free period in the library when they were practicing the new Charm Professor Flitwick had taught all the first-years when everything went wrong.

"Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick." Hermes was instructing a frustrated Regina.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" She shouted, waving her long arms like a windmill. Hermes looked ready to blow a gasket.

"You're saying it wrong." Hermes snapped. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever." Regina snarled, tossing her braid over her shoulder. Hermes rolled up the sleeves of his gown, flicked his wand and said:

"Wingardium Leviosa!" The feather in front of them rose off the table and hovered about four feet above their heads.

Thankfully, it was time to go to their next class, or else Hope was sure Regina would've socked Hermes right then and there. As it was, she was grumbling as everyone gathered their things and walked into the hall.

"It's no wonder no one can stand him." She complained to Hope and Cassie as they pushed their way through the crowded corridor. "He's a nightmare, honestly."

Someone knocked hard into Hope as they hurried past her. It was Hermes, who didn't even stop at Hope fell to the ground and spilled her books everywhere. Hope stared after him; she could've sworn he looked ready to cry.

"Here." Cassie interrupted her thoughts, handing her back her books. Regina was directing traffic, making sure no one stepped on Hope. Hope grabbed her books with one hand and let Cassie pull her up with the other.

"I think he heard you." Hope told Regina, not sure why she cared so much about Hermes. Maybe it was because she could remember doing something similar in school, running off crying because all the kids followed Dudley's lead and bullied her mercilessly. Maybe it was because she knew how it felt to be alone...

"So?" Regina mumbled, shifting her weight uncomfortably. "He's must've noticed he's got no friends."

* * *

Hope didn't see Hermes for the rest of the day. On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, they overheard Leland Brown tell one of his friends that Hermes had locked himself in the boys bathroom and wanted to be left alone. Regina looked awkward and uncomfortable at this, but a moment later they had entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Hermes out of their minds.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

Hope was just helping herself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table and gasped:

"Troll... in the dungeons... thought you ought to know." He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Prefects." He rumbled. "Lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

"Our dormitory is in the dungeon!" Hope protested to no one in particular.

"Multiple dungeons." Cassie told her, though she didn't look overly confident with Professor Dumbledore's decision.

Their Prefect led them straight out of the Great Hall, where they were jostled together with all the other students. Something awful occurred to Hope and she grabbed Cassie, looked around and managed to yank Regina out of the crowd. They stood together, letting the other students continue to jostle around them.

"I've just thought... Hermes!"

"What about him?"

"He doesn't know about the troll." Regina bit her lip and Cassie looked horror-struck at the thought.

"Oh, all right. Let's go get him." Regina snapped. "But my brother Percy had better not see us."

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going one way, slipped down a deserted side corridor and hurried off toward the boys' bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them. Fearing it was a Prefect, they ducked behind a large stone griffin to hide. Peering around it, however, they saw not any Prefect but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.

"What's he doing?" Hope whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"

"Search me." Regina murmured.

"Come on. Hermes." Cassie reminded them of their original goal.

"Wait." Hope told her; it wasn't like the troll was going to make a beeline for the boys bathroom to wash his hands and check his hair in the mirror before causing general destruction and mayhem. They had time to investigate.

As quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps.

"He's heading for the third floor." Hope reported, but Regina held up her hand.

"Can you smell something?" She asked. Hope sniffed and a foul stench reached her nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean. And then they heard it: a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet.

Cassie snatched fistfuls of Regina and Hope's hair and yanked them back behind a corner. Regina and Hope were just about to punch her when she held up her hands in surrender and pointed. They looked. At the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight. It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long. The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.

"The keys in the lock." Hope muttered. "We could lock it in."

"Wait-." Cassie started.

"Good idea." Regina agreed nervously, showing she didn't think it was a good idea at all.

"Hope, Regina-." Ignoring Cassie's protests, they edged toward the open door, mouths dry, praying the troll wasn't about to come out of it. With one great leap, Hope managed to grab the key, slam the door and lock it.

"Yes!" Flushed with their victory, they started to run back to Cassie, but as they reached the corner they heard something that made their hearts stop: a terrified scream... and it was coming from the chamber they'd just chained up.

"That's the boys bathroom!" Cassie yelled at them, looking truly and completely irked that they were so stupid.

"Oh, no." Regina gasped, pale as Peeves the Poltergeist beneath her freckles. The three of them all exchanged looks.

"Hermes!" They all said together. It was the last thing they wanted to do, but what choice did they have? Wheeling around, they sprinted back to the door and turned the key, fumbling in their panic. Hope pulled the door open and they ran inside.

Hermes was shrinking against the wall opposite of the door, looking as if he was about to faint. The troll was advancing on him, knocking the sinks off the wall with it's club as it went.

"Confuse it!" Hope shouted desperately. Seizing a tap from the floor, she threw it like a baseball at the troll's head. Cassie and Regina followed her example and soon the bathroom was filled with bangs, shouts and echoes.

The troll was growing berserk with all the noise. Hope dived under its swinging club and tried to tug Hermes towards the door. But he wouldn't move; he was flattened against the wall, staring in shock at the troll as the other girls tried to keep it distracted. Hope couldn't drag him, so she turned to see if they could lure the troll out of the room. She saw it heading towards Regina, who was trapped in a corner, holding a pipe like a baseball bat and shaking like a leaf.

Cassie was shooting several spells at it that Hope didn't even know what they were; 'Stupefy' wasn't in their first year book of spells. They were barely slowing the troll down, however.

Hope then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: she took a great running jump and managed to fasten her arms around the troll's neck from behind. The troll couldn't feel Hope hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose and Hope's wand had still been in his hand when she'd jumped. It had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils. Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Hope clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip her off or catch her a terrible blow with the club.

Regina pointed her wand at the troll's face and shouted another spell Hope didn't know. Suddenly, bats were flying out of the trolls nose. The troll was howling and flailing around even harder; with bats flying around it was harder for Hope to focus on holding on. All in all, it was not a great help.

"What was that?" Cassie shrieked at Regina.

"Bat-bogey hex. The women in my family are proficient at it." She bragged.

"Do something else!" Hermes yelled at them from where he hid underneath a sink. Cassie pointed her wand at the troll, but then dropped it again, unsure. Regina pointed her wand once more and shouted the first thing that came to mind.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over... and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

Hope was thrown off it and rolled on the debris covered floor. Shaking, she got to her feet. Somehow, she was unhurt. Or she had too much adrenaline in her system to realize she had broken bones yet. Either way, she was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

"Is it... dead?" Hermes asked shakily as he crawled out from underneath the sinks.

"I don't think so." Hope whispered back. "I think it's just been knocked out." She bent down and pulled her wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue. "Urgh... Troll boogers." Forcing back a gag, she wiped it on the troll's trousers.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the four of them look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart. Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Hope, Ronnie and Draco. Hope had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white. It must've been quite a scene. An unconscious troll, a destroyed bathroom, four less than innocent looking first-years and bogey-bats falling out of the sky as the spell to keep them 'alive' faded.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall demanded, with cold fury in her voice. Hope looked at her friends, who looked equally as scared as she was. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

Snape gave Hope a swift, piercing look as if everything was her fault. Hope looked at the floor. Then a small voice came out of the shadows:

"Please, Professor McGonagall... They were looking for me."

"Mr. Granger!" Hermes had managed to get to his feet at last.

"I went looking for the troll because I... I thought I could deal with it on my own... You know, because I've read all about them." Hope, Regina and Cassie stared at Hermes in utter shock. Hermes Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher? It was a likely as pigs flying, the earth suddenly spinning backwards or Snape smiling. "If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Hope stuck her wand up its nose and Regina knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived." Hope and Regina tried to look as though this story wasn't new to them. Hope wished Hermes had mentioned the part where Hope lead the charge into bathroom and had done more than just stick her wand up a troll's nostril. Cassie looked a little peeved that Hermes didn't mention her part in all of it; there was nothing she hated more than not getting credit where credit was due.

"Well... in that case..." Professor McGonagall began slowly, staring at the four of them. "Mr. Granger, you foolish boy, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?" Hermes hung his head in shame at the rebuke. "

"Mr. Granger, five points will be taken from Ravenclaw for this. I'm very disappointed in you. As for the rest of you, five points each to your houses. For sheer _dumb luck._ If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to your common rooms. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they were a good distance away from the bathroom. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

"We all should've gotten more than five points. They were expecting it to take all the teachers to handle that troll, but we did it in five minutes." Cassie complained as they paused to catch their breaths and talk.

"I can't believe you took the fall for us." Hope stared at Hermes.

"Mind you, we did save him." Regina hissed at her.

"Mind you, he wouldn't have needed saving if it weren't for us." Hope hissed right back.

"Thank you." Hermes interrupted. "For saving me. I thought I was going to die."

"You would've done the same for us." Hope told him and felt, deep inside, that it was completely true. They shared smiles.

The four of them looked around at each other. They looked like an odd group as they stood there laughing at their luck. Two Slytherin's, a Gryffindor and a Ravenclaw, all together. It was definitely odd. But from that moment on, Hermes Granger became their friend, different house or not. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.


	12. The Plot Thickens

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaver-skin boots.

Hermes had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since the others had saved him from the mountain troll and he was much nicer for it. One day, they were out in the freezing courtyard during break and he had conjured them up a bright blue fire that could be carried around in a jam jar.

Hope saw Snape crossing the yard and jerked her elbow into the ribs of her friends. They moved closer together to block the fire from view; they had no doubt Snape would make up some rule about it not being allowed. Unfortunately, something about their guilty faces caught Snape's eye and he limped over. Hope frowned as she saw him walk; there was something wrong with his leg for sure.

Snape hadn't seen the fire but he seemed to be looking for a reasons to tell them off anyway.

"What's that you've got there, Potter?" He demanded. It was a library book called Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Hope showed him. "Library books are not to be taken outside the school. Give it to be. Five points from Slytherin." He stomped away with Hope's book in hand.

They all looked at Hermes, the master of knowing the rules. He shook his head angrily.

"He made that rule up." Hermes seethed.

"Wonder what's wrong with his leg?" Hope put in.

"I don't know. But I hope it's really hurting him." Regina said bitterly.

"Hopefully it's deadly." Cassie returned casually.

"Maybe it's just infected. He'll loose the leg and we'll have to call him Professor Stumpy." Hope countered.

"You're all unbelievable." Hermes said, fighting back laughter.

* * *

The four of them had taken to sitting on the staircases to talk during the evenings. As they couldn't all gather in one common room, it was the simplest solution. It was there, as they discussed the upcoming holidays, that Hope had an idea.

"I'm going to ask for my book back." She announced, standing up. "I doubt he'll say no if other teachers are around in the teachers lounge."

Hope pushed the door ajar and peered inside... and a horrible scene met her eyes. Snape and Filch were inside, alone. Snape was holding his robes above his knees. One of his legs was bloody and mangled. Filch was handing Snape bandages.

"Blasted thing." Snape was saying. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?"

Hope tried to shut the door quietly, but...

"POTTER!" Snape's face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg. Hope gulped.

"I just wondered if I could have my book back." She tried to sound casual, like she hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary at all.

"GET OUT! OUT!"

Hope left, before he could take more points from his own house. She sprinted back towards her friends, debating what she had just seen. She joined them, breathless, and told the other three what she had seen. Regina and Cassie were all for gathering the torch and pitchforks and leading the charge against him, but Hermes wasn't so sure.

"No. He wouldn't." He insisted. "I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe."

"Honestly, Hermes, you think all teachers are saints or something." Regina snapped at him. "I'm with Hope and Cassie. I wouldn't put anything past Snape. But what's he after? What's that dog guarding?"

Hope went to bed with her head buzzing with the same question. Cassie fell asleep the moment she collapsed into her bed, but Hope couldn't sleep. She tried to empty her mind; she had classes tomorrow and needed to sleep. But the expression on Snape's face when Hope had seen his leg wasn't easy to forget.

* * *

It was during one of their visits with Hagrid that Hope finally came clean about her suspicions about Snape. Hagrid was one of the few people Hope could trust and she had a feeling he knew a lot more about what went on around the school than she did. As she told him what she'd found about, Hagrid dropped the tea pot with a loud clatter. Even Fang jumped at the sound as Hagrid whirled around to look at her.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid demanded.

"Fluffy?" Cassie and Hermes asked in disbelief.

"Fluffy?" Regina and Hope asked in amusement.

"Yeah. He's mine. Bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year. I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the-."

"Yes?" Hope pressed eagerly.

"Now, don't ask me anymore." Hagrid told them all gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it."

"Rubbish." Hagrid repeated. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"Oh, great, he's turned into Granger." Cassie protested and Hermes responded with a glare that would've made Professor McGonagall flinch.

"Now, listen to me, all four of yeh: yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel-."

"Aha!" Hope said in triumph. "So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"

Hagrid looked furious with himself.

* * *

 **A/N Short chapter, I know. It's more of a filler than anything else. Because Hope's not on a Quidditch team (as Professor McGonagall originally put Harry on _her_ team to benefit _her_ house, it wouldn't make sense for her to break the rules to put her on the Slytherin team), none of the quidditch that happens in the first book is here. She will be joining the quidditch team in her second year, though, so there is some quidditch to look forward to in my fanfiction. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the double update. As always, feel free to review with questions or comments! Thank you and have a good day!**


	13. Christmas

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again. No one could wait for the holidays to start.

While the common rooms and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.

"I do feel so sorry." Pansy began in her annoyingly fake sweet voice, one Potions class. "For all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home." She was looking over at Hope as she spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. Hope, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them.

Pansy was so upset about Hope not being expelled that she'd only gotten more unpleasant to be around. So she had taken to taunting Hope about having no proper family, how her scar was ugly and how her glasses made her eyes look too big.

It was true that Hope wasn't going anywhere for Christmas. Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays and Hope had signed up at once. She didn't feel sorry for herself at all; this would probably be the best Christmas she'd ever had. Regina and her brothers were staying, too, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie. Hermes was going back to see his parents and Cassie, though she apologized to Hope for doing so, was heading home as well.

When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it.

"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Regina asked, sticking her head through the branches and immediately getting her hair caught in a dozen of them.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Regina." Hagrid replied as Hope tried to free her friend's hair from the tree.

"Would you mind moving out of the way, losers?" Pansy's voice came from behind them. She saw the sight and laughed, glancing over at Crabbe and Goyle to make sure her gang was still there to back her up. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose. That hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

Regina dived at Pansy, ripping out a few of her ginger hairs on the tree. Cassie tried to grab her but missed. Hermes locked his arms around Hope to hold her back from joining the fray. Just as Regina was about to give Pansy what was coming to her, Snape came up the stairs.

"WEASLEY!" Regina let go of the front of Pansy's robes.

"She was provoked, Professor Snape." Hagrid said quickly, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Parkinson was insultin' her family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid." Snape reminded him silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Pansy and her gang pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere and smirking.

"I'll get her." Regina vowed, grinding her teeth at Pansy's back. "One of these days, I'll get her-."

"I hate them both. Parkinson and Snape." Hope said bitterly, shaking free of Hermes.

"Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas." Hagrid reminded them. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

So the four of them followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree. Put it in the far corner, would you?"

The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one." Hermes told him. "And that reminds me. We've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right." Regina agreed, tearing her eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" Hagrid echoed, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working." Hope told him brightly. "We're trying to find out who Nicolas Flamel is. Unless, that is, you want to tell us and save us all that trouble." She tried to sound innocent, but couldn't keep a smirk from gracing her lips. Hagrid stammered and stuttered about how it wasn't any of their business before he hurried off.

"Worth a shot." Regina shrugged and the four of them headed off to the library.

They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century or Notable Magical Names of Our Time. He was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library: tens of thousands of books, thousands of shelves and hundreds of narrow rows.

Hermes took out a list of subjects and titles he had decided to search while Regina strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Hope wandered over to the Restricted Section, with a suspicious Cassie on her heels. She had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books and she knew that she'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"We can't go in there." Cassie reminded her in a whisper.

"Not without breaking the rules." If Hope had learned anything in her admittedly short life, it was that if you wanted something, there was a rule against it. And, if you really wanted it, you had to be willing to break that rule.

Walking away from the Restricted Section before they got caught poking around, they went to sit at one of the table. Hermes was looking through a book already. Regina was playing with a loose thread on her robe and staring off into space.

"Really, if they don't want anyone in there, they should put a door and a lock between the two places." Hope added as they sat down. Hermes' head jerked up and he seemed to know immediately what they were talking about.

"Perhaps they assume we're well-behaved enough-." The other three burst into laughter, cutting him off before he could even finish.

"Good one." Regina told her.

"Rules are more like guidelines." Cassie agreed.

"If you want something, you've got to take it." Hope added.

"You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" Hermes questioned, artfully changing the subject. "And send me an owl if you find anything." He added hurriedly.

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is. It'd be safe to ask them." Regina suggested.

"Very safe. They're both dentists." Collecting their bags, they went off to their next class without another word.

* * *

Once the holidays had started and Hermes and Cassie left, Regina and Hope were having too good a time to think much about Flamel. The classes stopped and they had free time to play outside or explore the castle more.

Hope was the only Slytherin that didn't go home to their families or tag along with friends. It got lonely in the Slytherin dungeon. Which was why she decided to break a Slytherin rule while she could still get away with it. She took Regina into the Slytherin Common Room.

The other girl was surprised that it wasn't a completely terrible place to hang out in. Hope showed her around and then took her into her and Cassie's dormitory. When Regina saw the glass window out into the lake, she gasped in surprise.

"And here I just get to look out on the backyard." She complained.

Crookshanks, who had been lounging in the bathroom sink, lunged at Regina. Hope rushed to grab him as he tried to climb up her leg. Regina cursed and backed away as Hope hefted her cat up into her arms to contain him.

"I don't have Scabbers! Crazy cat..." She muttered. "Hey, wanna see Gryffindor tower? It's only my brothers left and they won't mind if I sneak you up."

"Sure!"

"But the cat stays."

"He doesn't mean to hurt your pet. He's a cat, Regina!"

"He's completely mad. He stays."

"Fine."

* * *

When Hope woke up Christmas morning, she was shocked to see a small pile of packages at the end of her bed. She put on her glasses and crawled to the foot of her bed to examine them closer. Crookshanks was trying to tug off a ribbon from a package, so she absentmindedly yanked it off and threw it to the floor for him to amuse himself with.

She hadn't expected anything at all, yet there it was: a pile of presents clearly addressed to her. Hope had never been the cliché kid on Christmas morning until that moment, when she actually had something to be excited about. She grabbed the first one eagerly and searched for the sender's name. It was from Hagrid. She smiled and tore it open.

Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Hope blew it and realized that it sounded a bit like an owl. Crookshanks immediately whirled around, trying to find the source. Hope giggled and grabbed the next one.

It was from Mrs. Weasley, Regina's mother. Hope took special care to open it. Inside was a thick, hand-knitted sweater in emerald green and a large box of homemade fudge.

Hope's next present also contained candy, a large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermes. Cassie had sent her a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them with a note proclaiming she wouldn't have to brave Snape to read this version. She'd sent them both a card; it was the only thing she had access to, as Hogwarts didn't exactly have a gift-shop.

That only left one parcel. Hope picked it up and felt it. It was very light. She unwrapped it. Something fluid and silvery gray went slithering to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds. She dove to grab it again, saving it from Crookshanks' claws. It was strange to touch, like water had been woven into material. Throwing it over herself, she looked down to see how it looked. A gasp escaped her lips. She couldn't see her legs. She dashed to the mirror. Her reflection looked back at her, just her head suspended in midair, her body completely invisible. She pulled the cloak over her head and her reflection vanished completely.

Turning back, Hope saw Crookshanks playing with a note. She snatched it from her cat, throwing a fistful of wrapping paper to the floor for him to play with instead. Written in narrow, loopy writing she had never seen before were the following words:

 _Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well._

 _A Very Merry Christmas to you._

There was no signature. Hope stared at the note for a minute and then started moving. She cleaned up her dormitory, threw on a pair of jeans and her new sweater and grabbed her weird new cloak. Tucking the note into her pocket, she hurried out of the dormitory. Crookshanks was hot at her heels; she didn't bother to herd him back in. He'd been exploring the castle a lot while she was in class and had never seemed to get lost or hurt.

He followed her all the way up the stairs towards the Great Hall. She knew Regina was near when he went tearing off, hissing like mad. She sprinted after him. She caught up in time to see Fred and George, who had been frog-marching Percy into the Great Hall, laughing at Regina screaming obscenities at the cat.

"Crookshanks, here, boy." That didn't work, so Hope just grabbed him. Scabbers didn't seem to be in any of Regina's pockets, but Hope had no doubt she had the scent of the creature on her.

"Hey, you got a Weasley sweater." Regina said happily. "I told mum about you staying over the holidays. I guess she thought she'd get cold."

"Regina, I have to show you something." Hope told her urgently. Regina looked at her, confused, but nodded in agreement.

"I'll catch up with you." She called to her brothers and they went into the Great Hall without her. Hope set Crookshanks down and led Regina behind one of the many statures adorning the corridors of Hogwarts.

Hope unfolded the cloak and threw it over herself. Regina gasped.

"It's an invisibility cloak." Regina whispered urgently. "I'd give anything for one of these. They're the stuff of legend! Who sent it to you?"

"I don't know. This came with it." Hope folded the cloak over her arm instead and dug out the note that Crookshanks had nearly eaten. Regina snatched it and read it quickly.

"Wow. A new mystery... Are you okay?" Regina asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Hope lied. In truth, she felt very strange. Who had sent the cloak? Had it really once belonged to her father? If it did, it would be the only thing she had that had belonged to either of her parents.

"Let's go eat." Regina said after a minute, handing back the note.

"Let me put this away. Go on ahead."

"I can come with you if you want." Regina offered.

"No, it's fine. I'm just running down. Come on, Crookshanks." Her cat bounded after her obediently as Hope hurried back towards the dungeons. She was deep in thought as she let muscle-memory take over and take her to her dormitory. Who had something of her father's to send her? And why didn't they want her to know who they were? Also, why did they wait so long to give it to her?

* * *

Hope had never in all her life had such a Christmas dinner. She sat at the Gryffindor table for the first time in order to join the Weasley's. All down the table, food was piled high on platters. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic party favors were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats inside. Hope pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice.

Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him. Not all the teachers had stayed for the holidays, but enough to keep mild order in the hall.

Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver sickle embedded in his slice. Hope watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Hope's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided.

When Hope finally left the table, she was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of nonexplodable, luminous balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit and a wizard chess set. The white mice had disappeared and Hope had a feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner.

Hope and the Weasleys spent a happy afternoon having a furious snowball fight on the grounds. Then, cold and wet, the boys snuck her into the Gryffindor Common Room to warm up. Percy protested a Slytherin being in the Gryffindor tower, but Fred and George stuffed a pair of new socks into his mouth.

Hope broke in her new chess set by losing spectacularly to Regina. Even her brothers admitted she was a good player. Still, it was fun to play with her.

After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge.

It had been Hope's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been nagging at the back of her mind all day. It was only after she returned to her own dormitory that she was free to think about it: the invisibility cloak and whoever had sent it.

Hope picked it up from her trunk where she'd stored it. She let the material flow over her hands, smoother than silk, light as air. Use it well, the note had said. She had to try it, now. She threw it over her. Looking down at her legs, she saw only moonlight and shadows. It was a very funny feeling. _Use it well._ Suddenly, Hope felt wide-awake. The whole of Hogwarts was open to her in this cloak. Excitement flooded through her as she stood there in the dark and silence. She could go anywhere in this, anywhere, and Filch would never know. By 'use it well', the mysterious sender obviously meant, use it however you desire even if that is to get into trouble, right? Of course.

Making sure it was tight around her, she crept out of the dungeon. Where should she go? She stopped, her heart racing, and thought. She could always sneak into Snape's office and poke around. Maybe she could do like she did at the Dursley's: mess up just enough things to drive him crazy without it pointing back at her. That was tempting. Or she could go down to see Fluffy the three-headed down, sneak past him and go down the trapdoor to finally see what the dog was guarding. No, too risky... And then it came to her. The Restricted Section in the library. She'd be able to read as long as she liked, as long as it took to find out who Flamel was. She set off, drawing the invisibility cloak tight around her as she walked.


	14. Curiosity Killed The Cat

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hogwarts was very different at night. The warmth and homey feeling of the castle seemed to have disappeared. In it's place was cold, dark corridors and oddly shaped shadows that made her paranoid. She moved fast, scared something might jump out at her. It was her first time running around the castle after hours without her friends by her side.

She wondered what her father had used the cloak for. General mayhem and mischief? Probably, if Hope had inherited anything from him. She pulled the cloak tighter around her; she felt closer to her father with it.

As Hope pushed open the door to the library, she saw it looked even bigger at night. The only light came from windows far above Hope's head, with the shadows of the room stretching out endlessly in all directions. Hope slipped behind the librarian's desk and lit a lamp so she could make her way over to the Restricted Section at the back of the library.

Hope held the lamp up to read the titles of the book, hoping there would just be one entitled 'Nicolas Flamel and Everything He Ever Did With A Whole Chapter On His Relationship With Albus Dumbledore'. Unsurprisingly, it looked like she was asking for a little too much. Most of the books didn't even have titles and the ones that did were hard to read, with their faded gold letters peeling off the spines. Maybe she was imagining it, but Hope could've sworn that some of them were whispering to each other. Or maybe to her.

She had to start somewhere, Hope reasoned. Setting the lamp down on the floor, she sat down and pulled out a large volume from the bottom self. It might not have anything she was looking for in it, but it was interesting looking. Besides, this was the Restricted Section; anything she read would be interesting.

Hope pulled the book out with difficulty, because it was very heavy, and, balancing it on her knee, let it fall open. A piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence; the book was screaming! Hope snapped it shut, but the shriek went on and on, one high, unbroken, earsplitting note. Letting all the curses she'd ever heard anyone else utter run through her head, Hope scrambled to her feet. One of her feet knocked over the lamp. For a split second, she thought everything was going to catch fire and she would burn down the entire library. Thankfully, the lamp just went out.

She heard footsteps coming down the corridor outside. She leaned down and stuffed the shrieking book back in it's place. Then, holding the cloak tight around her, she ran. She tripped over the rope, forgetting to jump it, and looked up to see Filch in the doorway. She army-crawled forward, stood up behind the librarian's desk and made a run for it as Filch hurried towards the Restricted Section.

After a moment of sprinting along the corridors, Hope came to a sudden halt in front of a tall suit of armor. She had been so busy getting away from the library, she hadn't paid attention to where she was going. Perhaps because it was dark, she didn't recognize where she was at all. There was a suit of armor near the kitchens, which in turn was near the dungeons, but she must be five floors above there.

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library Restricted Section." Hope didn't know what cardiac arrest felt like, but she could take an educated guess as she heard Filch's voice. To Hope's immense horror, it was Snape who replied:

"The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll catch them."

Hope stood rooted to the spot as Filch and Snape came around the corner ahead. They couldn't see her, of course, but it was a narrow corridor and if they came much nearer they'd knock right into her. The cloak didn't stop her from being solid.

Hope backed away as quietly as she could. A door stood ajar to her left and she squeezed through it, holding her breath and trying not to move it. Filch and Snape walked straight past and Hope pressed a hand to her chest to make sure her heart was indeed still beating.

Once she was sure she hadn't died without noticing, she looked around the room, hoping for another door. It looked like an unused classroom. Desks and chairs were piled against the walls and an old chalk board was hanging on the other side of the room. Hope almost tripped over an upturned wastepaper basket. But the most interesting thing was propped against the wall facing her: a mirror. It was as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. As Hope crept closer, she noticed an inscription carved around the top of the mirror in a curve: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

Hope stepped over to it, wondering what a mirror that magnificent would be doing in an unused classroom. Maybe it was an Alice Through The Looking Glass thing and, if she touched it, she'd be transported to another world. With that thought in mind, she didn't touch it. She looked up into the glass itself and had to bite back a scream.

Two people were standing behind her. She whirled around, but the room was empty. Slowly, she turned back to the mirror. There she was, reflected in it despite the cloak. Her skin was pale from the frights of the night, her curly, red hair a mess and she knew then there was such a thing as cloak-hair, like helmet-hair.

A woman standing right behind her reflection was smiling at her and waving. She reached out a hand and felt the air behind her. If she was really there, she'd touch her, their reflections were so close together, but she felt only air. She and the other man existed only in the mirror. Hope wasn't sure if that was comforting or not.

Whether she existed or not, the woman was very pretty. She had red hair that fell past her shoulders in gentle waves, the same shade but not the same style as Hope's own hair. Her face was rounded, her lips full and pink. Her eyes were bright green, which only served to set off her hair even more. She wore a bright red summer dress and heels; even though it was just a reflection, Hope could tell that the woman was on the shorter side, like she was herself. The pretty woman was also crying. Smiling, but crying at the same time.

The man on the other side of Hope was tall and lean, with glasses and curly, messy hair. Hope saw a bit of herself in those curls and glasses. He had a thinner, more angular face that Hope thought was a bit more like hers. He wore a lopsided smile and had a mischievous glint in his eyes. His button-up shirt was untucked and his jeans were faded and ripped. He put an arm around the woman as she smiled and cried.

Suddenly, as though someone had whispered it in her ear, Hope knew exactly who they were.

"Mom? Dad?"

They just smiled at her. Lily Potter raised a hand towards the glass as if to touch Hope. Hope pressed her palm against the cold glass, wishing more than anything that she could just fall through and land in their arms. Hope stared hungrily at the image with a terrible ache in her chest, half joy, half terrible sadness.

How long she stood there, she didn't know. She tried to commit every detail to memory, scared to death that they would disappear before her eyes. But the image never faded. It was only after staring at them until her eyes were sore that Hope realized something. They were young. Every time she thought of her parents, she thought of them like she thought of her thirty-something teachers at different schools or the other parents she'd seen with children her age. But they weren't that old at all. They looked barely any older than the seventeen or eighteen year old seventh years Hope saw every day running around Hogwarts.

Hope slid down to the floor and sat there, the cloak still tangled around her. Her head was resting on the glass right where her mother's knee was. That's when the tears came. It wasn't fair, she thought bitterly. It wasn't fair that they were dead. It wasn't fair that they died young. It wasn't fair that she survived when they didn't. It wasn't fair she had to grow up without them.

She sat there and sobbed her heart out, feeling the urge to punch something and barely restraining herself from breaking the glass. After all, it was the only thing she had to show her what her parents looked like.

A distant sound reminded her of the time and place. She couldn't stay there. She stood up, fixing her cloak around her. She tore her eyes from her parents' face and whispered:

"I'll come back." And with that, she hurried from the room.

* * *

"You could've woken me up." Regina complained the next morning. Hope had brought her into her and Cassie's dormitory again, with an agreement that she'd put Crookshanks in the bathroom while Regina and Scabbers were there.

"You can come tonight." Hope offered. "I'm going back and I want to show you the mirror. You can show me all your brothers."

"Please." Regina scoffed, stroking Scabbers' head. Hope could still hear Crookshanks scratching frantically at the bathroom door. "Come over during the summer and you can see our whole family circus. Besides, maybe it only shows dead people." She added with a shrug.

"Yeah, maybe..." Hope agreed absentmindedly, staring out at the fish swimming past the dormitory window.

"Did you find out anything in the Restricted Section?" Regina asked, very pointedly ignoring the thump that was Crookshanks throwing himself against the bathroom door.

"No." In fact, she had almost forgotten about Flamel. It didn't seem very important anymore. Who cared what the three headed dog was guarding? What did it matter if Snape stole it, really? Hope collapsed against her pillows, closing her eyes and imagining her parents again.

* * *

That night, it was slower going with Regina under the cloak as well. What Hope feared most was that she wouldn't be able to find the mirror again. She hadn't exactly been drawing a map of each twist and turn she'd taken fleeing from the library the previous night. She tried retracing her steps, but that just left them wandering around the cold passageways for an hour.

"I'm freezing." Regina complained. "Let's just go back."

"No! It's around here somewhere." Hope insisted. Looking around, she saw the familiar suit of armor and nearly jumped for joy. "There! It's just... around... here!" She saw the door and started running towards it, prompting Regina to pick up the pace to keep up with her. They pushed the door open, slipped inside and shut it behind them again. Hope threw off the cloak and ran over to the mirror.

Her mother and father were there, smiling at the sight of her. She smiled at the sight of them and then turned around to wave Regina over. The other red-head approached, squinted at the mirror and then looked back at Hope.

"I don't see anything but the two of us."

"Here, look in it properly, stand where I am." She tugged Regina into the correct position. But with her friend in front of the mirror, she couldn't see her parents anymore, just Regina in her footsy pajamas. Regina, though, was staring transfixed at her image.

"Look at me!" She stared at herself, but it wasn't really her. It was everything she wanted to be. She was older, better looking. Her freckles seemed to disappear under tan skin. Her hair was styled. Her clothes were new and fashionable. She had the sudden feeling that if some boy walked past her, he'd see her as a beautiful girl, not just some kid.

"Can you see your family?" Hope asked eagerly.

"What? No." Regina scoffed, as if the idea was ludicrous. She looked again and noticed other things about the perfect image of herself. "I'm alone, but I'm different. I'm older. I'm Head Girl!"

"What?"

"I am! I'm wearing the badge that Bill used to. And I'm holding the Quidditch cup... I'm Quidditch Captain too!" Regina tore her eyes away from the splendid sight to look at her friend behind her. "Do you think it shows the future?"

"How can it? My parents are dead." Hope reminded her, longing for another look at them. "Give me a turn again." She pleaded.

"You? You had it all last night!" Regina protested immediately.

The argument quickly dissolved into a shoving match, which in turn dissolved into a wrestling match on the floor. They were saying 'don't push me' while bodily shoving each other and trying to pin each other to the ground. Regina was trying to using her bigger size to her advantage to pin Hope and Hope was attempting to execute a choke-hold when a sudden noise in the corridor put a sudden end to the fight. They froze, listening. Coming back to their senses and untangled themselves, the girls ran for the cloak. They had just thrown it over themselves when the luminous eyes of Mrs. Norris came around the door. The duo stood stone-still, both wondering the same thing: did the cloak work on cats?

After what seemed like an eternity within itself, Mrs. Norris turned and left.

"This isn't safe. She might have gone for Filch. Come on." Regina insisted. Hope started to protest, but her friend pulled her out of the room.

* * *

The next day passed painfully slowly. Despite Regina's attempts to distract her, Hope could only think about that mirror. As curfew fell and Regina retired to Gryffindor Tower, Hope took the invisibility cloak and made for the mirror.

She felt slightly guilty as she hurried along. Regina probably wanted to see the mirror again too, despite her friend's complaints about getting caught by that 'stupid cat'. But she wanted to see it alone, so she didn't end up with a bloody nose from a fight with Regina again.

That third night, Hope found her way quicker than before. She walked so fast she knew she was making more noise than was wise, but she was too excited to slow down.

When she finally reached the mirror again, she tossed over the cloak and sat down in front of it. Her father was smiling a crooked smile at her and her mother waved happily. There was nothing at all that could stop Hope from spending all night with her parents. Nothing except...

"So, back again, Hope?"

Hope whirled around, getting up onto her knees, eyes wide and feeling like she'd just stuck a fork in an electrical outlet. Sitting on one of the desks against the wall was none other than Albus Dumbledore. Hope must've walked right past him, so desperate to get to the mirror that she didn't notice.

"I... didn't see you, sir." She admitted, settling back on her heels.

"Strange how nearsighted invisibility can make you." Dumbledore mused and, to Hope's immense relief, smiled at her. He slipped off the desk and sat on the floor in front of the mirror next to her. She turned around to sit properly again. "So you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"I didn't know it was called that."

"But I expect by now you've realized what it does?"

"Well, it shows me my family-."

"And it showed your friend Regina herself as head girl and quidditch captain."

"How did you know?" Hope asked, wondering if he'd also somehow witnessed the brawl that had followed.

"I don't need a cloak to become invisible." Dumbledore told her gently, though Hope hardly saw how that was comforting. "Now can you think what the Mirror of Erised does?"

"It shows us what we want."

"Yes and no. Let me explain. It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your parents, see them standing around you. Regina Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by her brothers and more than likely been teased for her position of gender and age, sees herself standing alone, the best of all of them. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible. The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Hope, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed?"

Hope stood up and collected the cloak, but then paused and turned back.

"Sir, Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?"

"Obviously, you've just done so." Dumbledore smiled. "You may ask me one more thing, however."

"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks." Hope stared. "One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."

It was only when she was back in bed that it struck Hope that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful. But then, she thought, as she shoved Crookshanks off her pillow, it had been quite a personal question.


	15. The Truth of the Matter

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Dumbledore had convinced Hope not to go looking for the Mirror of Erised again. For the rest of the holidays, the invisibility cloak stayed in her trunk. Hope wished she forget what she'd seen in the mirror, though. She had started having nightmares. Over and over again, she dreamed of her pretty mum and laid-backing looking dad disappearing in a flash of green light, while a high voice was cackling with laughter.

Hermes and Cassie were due back the day before term started. Hope went down to the train tracks to meet them. As the large crowd of students headed towards the magical carriages waiting for them, it was easy to spot the platinum blonde Cassie Malfoy and the tall, lean, messy-haired Hermes Granger. Hope sat on the a low branch of a nearby tree and waved wildly to catch their attention. Hermes hefted his hiking backpack higher up his shoulder and hurried over, with Cassie trailing behind as fast as she could in dress shoes and a expensive looking party-dress.

"Hope! What are you doing here?" Hermes asked as the two got to the tree.

"Waiting for you. I have something to tell you." She announced. Hermes offered a hand and helped her down from the tree.

"About Nicolas Flamel?" He asked eagerly.

"Well, no..." She had been so caught up in the Mirror of Erised, snowball fights and not doing homework that she hadn't actually been looking that hard. "But I'll tell you in a minute." She added, not wanting everyone around to hear their conversation. They waited by the tree as the rest of the students piled into carriages that pulled themselves. As Hope waited for the crowd to thin out, she asked them about their holidays.

"It was grand. Mother and father had a lovely party and invited all the other Pure-Blood families we know." Cassie explained. Then she frowned. "I'd forgotten how pompous they all are."

"My holiday was swell." Hermes told her, but his smile didn't quite meet his eyes. "We went camping."

"You don't seem the camping type." Hope said slowly; Cassie was already raising an eyebrow at his words.

"I'm not." He admitted. "But mum and dad are. They always say I lost out on the gene. Anyway, I got lots of books for Christmas!" He motioned to the backpack on his his shoulder. Hope tugged it off his arm and tested it's weight; she wondered how he could carry it without hunching over.

"Did you bring them _all_ back?"

"Yeah. I didn't have time to read them all. I'm only allowed two books per camping trip, after all. I have to 'enjoy nature'. Enjoy nature... It snowed. It was cold. And don't get me started on the bathroom situation."

"Bathroom?" Cassie asked.

"There was none." He clarified bitterly.

"Well, you got to spend time with your parents. Which brings me back to what I wanted to tell you." Hope informed him. All the students had piled into carriages and been driven away. One last carriage awaited them, as if it could sense there were three students lingering behind. Together Hope and Hermes tossed his heavy backpack into the carriage. Then the three clambered up themselves. Once they were seated, it started rolling up the hill towards the castle.

"Where's Regina?" Cassie asked, flipping her hair back out of her eyes.

"She said she's helping her brothers clean up Gryffindor Tower. I think she just didn't want to walk all the way down here."

"Naturally." Hermes rolled his eyes. "Anyway, what did you want to tell us?"

Hope told the two of them all about the mirror and what she and Regina had seen. Then she told them about her conversation with Dumbledore and even her nightmares that she'd been having ever since. It was easy to talk to them and Hope found herself blurting out every detail. As she finished, Hermes looked torn between horror at the idea Hope had been wandering around the castle and second-hand joy at Hope's discovery. Cassie just looked appalled that all the excitement had happened while she was away with the 'pompous pure-bloods'.

"Well, Dumbledore was right." Hermes finally said as the carriage rolled up to the front door of Hogwarts. "It sounds like that mirror can drive you mad."

"What do you think you would've seen?" Hope asked gently, knowing full-well it was a personal question. Hermes looked deep in thought as he jumped out of the carriage and turned to offer Hope a hand down. She shook her head and jumped down herself; just because she was short didn't mean she was incapable of getting in and out of things.

"I don't know." He finally said as they hurried up the steps towards the oak door, which was waiting wide-open for them. But something in his eyes told Hope he _did_ know.

"I would see myself inventing a pair of comfortable dress shoes." Cassie put in, causing them to laugh as they walked into Hogwarts once more.

* * *

The quartet had almost given up hope of finding Nicolas Flamel in the library, even though Hope was sure she'd read the name somewhere. Once the term started, they were back to skimming through books during their ten minute breaks between classes. There wasn't enough time on any given day to find anything useful, though. Hermes and Cassie checked out as many books as they could on famous wizards to read after curfew, but even that didn't give them much more time to research the mystery man.

The four of them must've looked very studious, nearly always in the library or carrying around library books. They had fallen back into their old habit of gathering on a staircase to talk, though it was to skim through books rather than talk more often than not.

It was during one of their 'skimming-sessions' as Hope called it that Nadine came hopping towards them. How she'd made it up so many stairs was anyone's guess, because the poor girl's legs had been stuck together with what they recognized at once as the Leg-Locker Curse. Hermes leaped up and performed the counter-curse. Nadine's legs sprang apart and she clutched the staircase railing, trembling.

"What happened?" Hope asked, pulling her down to sit next to them.

"Pansy Parkinson." Nadine explained shakily. "She's been reading up on all sorts of hexes and jinxes."

"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermes urged her. "Report that awful girl!"

"Do you want me to punch her?" Regina asked softly.

"My father used to tell me all about the most awful curses during his old war stories. I can make her disappear for good if you guys promise not to tell on me." Cassie added. But Nadine was shaking her head at all their offers and suggestions.

"I don't want more trouble." She mumbled.

"You've got to stand up to her, Nadine! Pansy and all her hopeful boyfriends are used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of the lot of them and make it easier." Regina told her.

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave! Everyone's already done that. That's why I'm not in Gryffindor, remember?" Nadine sniffed, wiping at her eyes.

Hope felt in the pocket of her robes and pulled out a Chocolate Frog, the very last one from the box Hermes had given him for Christmas. She handed it over to Nadine, who looked as though she might cry.

"You're worth twelve of her. If she gives you trouble, tell us. We'll help you stand up to her." Hope told her gently.

Nadine's lips twitched in a weak smile as she unwrapped the frog.

"Thanks, Hope... I think I'll go to bed... D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?" Nadine gave Hope a grateful hug, pressed the card into her hand and headed towards the kitchens where the Hufflepuff dormitories were located.

Hope looked at the Famous Wizard card.

"Dumbledore again. He was the first one I ever-." She gasped and stared at the back of the card. Then she looked up at Regina, Cassie and Hermes. "I've found him! I've found Flamel! I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here. Listen to this: 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel'!"

Hermes leaped to his feet, tripped over Regina, earned a shove for that and then started sprinting away. The remaining three looked at each other in confusion.

"Should we wait here or...?"

Hermes came back, looking annoyed.

"Come on!" He waved them forward, so they grabbed their things and hurried after him. He led them straight up to the Ravenclaw Tower. The door had no doorknob, but a bronze knocker shaped like an eagle. Hermes impatiently knocked.

"Shouldn't it look like a raven?" Regina asked no one in particular. Hope shrugged; she had long since given up on finding logic in the design of Hogwarts.

" _You see it in the water but it's never wet._ " A voice came from, seemingly, all around them.

"Your reflection." Hermes responded hurriedly. The door swung open. Hermes raced through and, fearing it would shut and they'd have to answer a riddle themselves, the other three bolted through after him.

The Ravenclaw Common Room was magnificent. It was a wide, circular room with a high ceiling. Tables, chairs and bookcases littered the room. A statue of someone who Hope assumed was the Ravenclaw founder stood tall against one wall. Blue and bronze silk drapes framed the arched windows and the ceiling itself had a constellation map on it. Cassie happily pointed out the 'Cassiopeia' constellation with practiced ease.

"Wait here!" Hermes ordered before hurrying through a door to get into his dormitory.

A few Ravenclaws looked up and frowned at the fact that two Slytherins and a Gryffindor were in their Common Room, but then turned back to their books or conversations. The trio waited for less than a minute before Hermes was back with an enormous book in his arms. He took them over to an empty table and set the book down.

"I never thought to look in here! I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading." He whispered excitedly.

"Light?" Regina echoed in disbelief, but Hermes told her to be quiet until he'd looked something up and started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to himself. At last, he found what he was looking for.

"I knew it! I knew it!"

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" Regina asked dryly. Hermes ignored her.

"Nicolas Flamel." He whispered dramatically. "Is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!"

This didn't have quite the effect he'd expected, as Hope and Regina looked at him blankly. Cassie looked somewhat surprised and reached for the book, but Hermes slapped her hand away. Cassie slapped his shoulder in return but kept her hands away from his book.

"Don't you know what the stone is?" Hermes demanded.

"A pretty rock with a fancy name?" Hope suggested, shrugging. Hermes looked ready to blow a gasket as he glared at her.

"Oh, honestly, don't you people read? Look, read that, there." He pushed the book toward them and the three of them read:

 _The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover._

 _Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)._

"See?" Hermes asked eagerly when they had finished. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying! No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it." Regina whispered.

"Can we go steal it?" Hope asked quietly.

"That's terrible." Hermes protested.

"To keep it from Snape, I mean." She added quickly, trying to cover for herself.

"I'll make you a book of gold so no page ever gets torn and the binding never gets ruined." Cassie offered in a tempting tone. She had the sweet, manipulative tone of voice down pat. Hermes looked at her, very obviously thinking about it, but then snapped out of it and shook his head furiously.

"No, that's terrible. It needs to stay right where it is."

"A house of gold..." Regina murmured dreamily. "Eight bedrooms. No attic rooms with ghouls..."

"That's impractical to build an entire house of gold." Hermes informed her matter-of-factly.

"Oh, but the book of gold is perfectly practical?"

"Shush." Hope told them, glancing around at the other students in the common room. They all sighed. Hermes shut the book with a thump.

"Well, it's no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry." Regina added. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?"


	16. A Little Slyness Goes A Long Way

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hope was suspicious by nature. She was a Slytherin after all; she had a deep desire to know things she shouldn't. But it didn't take a Slytherin to see that Snape was acting suspicious as he walked briskly into the Forbidden Forest. A Quidditch game, Slytherin vs. Gryffindor, had just ended. Hope had been daydreaming about trying out for the team next year, but she was brought back into reality as she saw Snape sneaking off into the forest.

Casting a glance at her friends, she saw they had noticed and were continuing up the hill towards the castle. Nadine was nursing a bloody-nose and Regina was shaking out her fist, blood dripping off her knuckles. Hermes had just decided the new rule was that they all sat together during Quidditch games to prevent the two from getting into a fight with Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle all at once. Cassie was just congratulating the two, shaking with laughter.

Hope snuck off, hurrying down the hill after Snape. The trees grew close together in the Forest, with sturdy branches and good cover. _If I can scale a fence, why not a tree?_ Hope asked herself. She grabbed the nearest branch, pulled herself up and began to climb. Once she was a good distance up, she could spot Snape continuing his near-run on the ground. She stretched out a leg and managed to clamber over onto the next tree in near-total silence.

Gaining confidence, she picked up the pace and snuck along after Snape, cat-like and proud of it. Finally, Snape stopped and she paused, holding onto the trunk of the tree to keep her balance on a high branch. Below, in a shadowy clearing, stood Snape, but he wasn't alone. Quirrell was there, too. Hope couldn't make out the look on his face, but he was stuttering worse than ever. Hope strained to catch what they were saying:

"... d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus..."

"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private." Snape's voice was icy. "Students aren't supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone, after all."

Hope leaned forward. Quirrell was mumbling something. Snape interrupted him:

"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"

"B-b-but Severus, I-."

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell." Snape threatened, taking a step toward him.

"I-I don't know what you-."

"You know perfectly well what I mean."

An owl hooted loudly and Hope nearly fell out of the tree. She waved the owl away impatiently and steadied herself in time to hear Snape say:

"- your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."

"B-but I d-d-don't-."

"Very well." Snape cut in. "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie." He threw his cloak over his head and strode out of the clearing. It was almost dark now, but Hope could see Quirrell, standing quite still as though he was petrified.

* * *

Hope had to wait until Quirrell had strode off before she could get out of the tree and hurry back towards the castle. It was completely dark by the time she managed to get in. Hermes, Regina and Cassie were waiting in the entrance hall for her, looking worried.

"Where have you been?" Hermes demanded as he spotted her walking in, still picking leaves out of her hair.

"Let's find an empty room, you wait 'til you hear this..."

She made sure Peeves wasn't inside the nearest classroom before shutting the door behind them, then she told them what she'd seen and heard.

"So we were right, it is the Sorcerer's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus pocus'. I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through-."

"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" Hermes asked in alarm. Regina moaned and put her head in her hands.

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday."

* * *

Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they'd thought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet. Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, the quartet would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Besides, Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe.

Whenever Hope passed Quirrell these days, she gave him an encouraging sort of smile. Regina had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter. Cassie had started being more involved in his class, asking questions and paying more attention, to encourage his teaching.

Hermes, however, had more on his mind than the Sorcerer's Stone. He had started drawing up study schedules and color-coding all his notes. Normally, that wouldn't have bothered anyone else, but Hermes kept nagging the three of them to do the same.

"Hermes, I'm right behind you in grades. I don't need all of this." Cassie complained in the library, pushing back the jars of different colored ink.

"Don't you want to beat me?"

"No, because then you'll smother me in my sleep."

"The exams are ages away." Regina moaned from where she was slumped on a love-seat next to Hope. She taken her History of Magic notebook and started using it to doodle in instead. Hermes had almost burst blood vessel when he'd found out about it, but now had resigned himself to twitching whenever he saw her sketching stick-figures in it.

" _Weeks_ away." Hermes corrected. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."

"But we're not six hundred and whatever years old. Thankfully. I mean, I like my skin the way it is and don't want to have to pick it up off the ground whenever I walk." Hope joked. Regina snorted with laughter and even Cassie attempted to hide a smile behind her hands. Hermes, however, didn't look amused with them shrugging off their studies.

"Are you all mad?" He demanded.

"Define mad." Cassie said slowly.

"Mum says all her children are." Regina shrugged the matter off.

"I prefer to call myself creative." Hope added.

"You all realize that we need to pass these exams to get into the second year, right? They're very important. I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me..."

"Fun?" Regina suggested dryly, picking up her Astronomy chart with a bored expression.

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermes. They had piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Hermes next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements.

"I'll never remember this." Regina burst out, throwing down her astronomy chart and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first really fine day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

Hope, who was looking up 'Dittany' in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, didn't look up until she heard Regina say:

"Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?" Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

"Jus' lookin'." He said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago." Regina said off-handedly. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St-."

"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact, about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy-." Hope began.

"SHHHH!" Hagrid said again. "Listen, come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh."

"See you later, then." Hope waved as Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" Cassie asked, shutting her Herbology book.

"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?" Hermes asked, looking up and trying his darnedest not to look that interested.

"I'm going to see what section he was in." Regina announced, as she had had enough of working. She came back a minute later with a pile of books in her arms and slammed them down on the table, making everything shake. "Dragons! Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him." Hope put in.

"It's against our laws." Cassie put in, choosing a book on dragons and flipping it open with mild interest.

"Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that." Regina added and Hermes and Hope exchanged looks of 'we didn't know that'. "It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden. Anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" Hope asked. Regina rolled her blue eyes.

"Of course there are. Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth was Hagrid up to?" Hermes asked, tossing down his quill.

"And on how earth do you know all of that?" Cassie asked Regina. Regina rolled her eyes.

"Sometimes I'm smart. It's a gift." She said dramatically.

"Well, maybe you can use your gift to study." Hermes suggested none-too-subtly, eyeing the stack of homework in front of Regina.

"I chose long ago not to abuse my gift in such a horrid manner." Everyone burst out laughing at that, momentarily forgetting about their worries.


	17. Hi, Dragon

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called 'who is it?' before he let them in and then shut the door quickly behind them. It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they politely refused.

"So, yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes." Hope agreed. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy." Hagrid frowned at her.

"O' course I can't. Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts. I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here. You're so important to every-day life here." Cassie's warm, flattering voice made everyone look at her. Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding for such an important object. We wondered who the great Albus Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you." Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words.

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me... then some o' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall." He ticked them off on his fingers. "Professor Quirrell an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?"

"Yeah. yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

Hope knew the others were thinking the same as she was. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything. Except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy. aren't you, Hagrid?" Hope asked anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore." Hagrid told her proudly.

"Well, that's something." Hope muttered to the others.

"Hagrid, can we open a window or something?" Regina put in.

"Can't, Regina, sorry." Hope noticed him glance at the fire. Hope looked at it too.

"Hagrid... What's that?" But she already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg.

"Ah." Hagrid muttered, fiddling nervously with his beard. "That's er..."

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" Regina questioned eagerly, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."

"Won it." Hagrid explained. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" Hermes asked.

"Or when it grows to be the size of your house." Cassie added, shooting one of her old looks of distate around the hut.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'." Hagrid told them, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library. Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit. It's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on I em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here, how ter recognize diff'rent eggs. What I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them." He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermes didn't.

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house."

But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire. So now they had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.

"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life." Regina sighed, as evening after evening they struggled through all the extra homework they were getting. Hermes had now started making study schedules for Hope and Regina, too. It was driving them nuts. Cassie had the advantage of being naturally smart and being right behind Hermes in classes. The red-heads hated the blonde for it.

Then, at breakfast time one morning, an owl brought Hope a note from Hagrid. He had written only two words:

 _It's hatching._

Regina wanted to skip the Gryffindor-Slytherin Herbology and go straight down to the hut, but, of course, Hermes wouldn't hear of it.

"Hermes, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" Regina whined as they stood gathered right out of the Great Hall to discuss the matter.

"Think of it as a learning experience." Cassie tried to persuade him.

"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing-."

"Shut up!" Hope ordered. Pansy was only a few feet away and she had stopped dead to listen. How much had she heard? Hope didn't like the look on Pansy's face at all.

Regina and Hermes argued until everyone else had drifted off to class and they were in danger of being late. In the end, Hermes agreed to run down to Hagrid's with the other three during morning break. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, the four of them showed up at Hagrid's hut at the same time, out of breath and curious.

Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out." He ushered them inside. The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath. All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table.

It wasn't exactly pretty; Hope thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes. It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs. "Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!"

"Hagrid, how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?" Hermes questioned. Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face. He leaped to his feet and ran to the window.

"What's the matter?"

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains. It's a kid; she's runnin' back up ter the school."

Hope and Regina knocked over their chairs as they jumped up. The two of them bolted to the door, threw it open and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking the student. Pansy Parkinson had seen the dragon.

* * *

Something about the smile lurking on Pansy's face during the next week made Hope, Regina, Cassie and Hermes very nervous. They spent most of their free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him.

"Just let him go." Hope urged. "Set him free."

"I can't." Hagrid protested. "He's too little. He'd die." They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. There was nothing 'little' or 'weak' about that dragon.

Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor. Hope worried he'd lose his job completely.

"I've decided to call him Norbert." Hagrid told them, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mommy?"

"He's lost his marbles." Regina muttered in Hope's ear.

"Hagrid." Hope interrupted loudly. "Give it two weeks and sweet little Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Pansy could go to Dumbledore at any moment." Hagrid bit his lip.

"I... I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."

Hermes moaned and tried to stretch out his legs. As Norbert tended to try and bite them whenever they walked into the hut, the four of them had taken to sitting on top of Hagrid's table. Thankfully, the table was sturdy and the ceiling was high. They just weren't looking forward to when Norbert was tall enough to reach them on the table.

Hope glanced over at Regina and remembered something about her older brother.

"Charlie." She said.

"You're losing it, too. I'm Regina, remember?"

"No. Charlie. Your brother Charlie. In Romania. Studying dragons." Hope tried to get her point across, waiting for Regina to get it.

"Brilliant!" Regina started to stand up, but Hermes pulled her back down before she could straighten up entirely and knock herself out on the ceiling.

"How about it, Hagrid?" And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him. Hope just prayed he'd agree; she was getting a bit tired of playing 'the floor is lava' and having to hop across a line of chairs and dive out the door before Norbert got them.


	18. Bye, Dragon

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Hope and Cassie nervously waiting in the entrance hall, diving behind statues whenever they heard a noise. They were waiting for Hermes and Regina to get back from helping Hagrid feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats by the crate. No one had the guts to ask Hagrid where he was getting _so_ many dead rats...

The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the front doors burst open just enough for two small bodies to slip through. Regina and Hermes appeared out of nowhere as they pulled off Hope's invisibility cloak. Hope jerked up from where she'd slumped against a cold statue tiredly.

"It bit me!" Regina cried, not bothering to be quiet about it. She showed them her hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief. "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby." She ranted.

"It's nice he loves something." Hermes tried to play peace-maker.

"So we'll get him a kitten. He can love that _all he wants_." Regina shot back.

An owl swooped down and dropped a letter for Regina.

"It's Charlie's answer." She cried as she tore open the letter. They all gathered around to read it.

 _Dear Reggie,_

("He always calls me that." Regina mumbled, flushed red with embarrassment.)

 _How are you? Thanks for the letter._

 _I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week._

 _Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon. Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark._

 _Send me an answer as soon as possible._

 _Love, Charlie_

They looked at one another.

"We've got the invisibility cloak." Hope began slowly. "It shouldn't be too difficult. I think the cloaks big enough to cover one or two of us and Norbert." It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the other three agreed with her. Anything to get rid of Norbert. And Pansy.

There was a hitch. By the next morning, Regina's bitten hand had swollen to twice its usual size. She didn't know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey; would she recognize a dragon bite? By the afternoon, though, she had no choice. The bite had turned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norbert's fangs were poisonous.

Hope, Cassie and Hermes rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day to find Regina in a terrible state in bed. She was paler than usual and her hand looked huge and swollen, wrapped up in layers of bandages.

"It's not just my hand." She whispered. "Although that feels like it's about to fall off. Pansy told Madam Pomfrey she wanted to borrow one of my books so she could come and have a good laugh at me. She kept threatening to tell her what really bit me. I've told her it was a dog, but I don't think she believes me."

"Why would you tell her it's a dog? What dogs are there here besides Fang?" Cassie told her.

"What was I supposed to say?" Regina shot back, her voice rising in pitch with panic.

"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday." Hermes tried to assure her, but this didn't soothe Regina at all. On the contrary, she sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat.

"Midnight on Saturday!" She said in a hoarse voice. "Oh no oh no. I've just remembered. Charlie's letter was in that book Pansy took. She's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."

The rest of them didn't get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made them leave, saying Regina needed sleep.

"It's too late to change the plan now." Hope told them. "We haven't got time to send Charlie another owl and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it. And we have got the invisibility cloak, Pansy doesn't know about that."

* * *

They found Fang sitting outside with a bandaged tail when they went to tell Hagrid, who opened a window to talk to them.

"I won't let you in. Norbert's at a tricky stage. Nothin' I can't handle." When they told him about Charlie's letter, his eyes filled with tears, although that might have been because Norbert had just bitten him on the leg. "Aargh! It's all right, he only got my boot. Jus' playin'. He's only a baby, after all." The baby banged its tail on the wall, making the windows rattle.

The trio walked back to the castle, feeling Saturday couldn't come quickly enough. They would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to say good-bye to Norbert if they hadn't been so worried about what they had to do.

In an unused classroom Saturday afternoon, they debated who would take Norbert to the tower that night.

"I don't think it'll cover all of us. I'll go with one of you. I'm stronger." Hermes told them.

"Are you?" Cassie asked in disbelief.

"I've snuck around the castle more than you. I can find my way better in the dark." Hope pointed out. "Besides, it's _my_ cloak."

"Tell you what, when you reach five foot and a hundred pounds, you can play with the big kids." Cassie teased her.

"I'm not that much younger-."

"I've got a month you on, Hermes has nearly an full year." Cassie rubbed it in and Hope glared at her. Age aside, Hope thought it was rather unfair that they were making fun of her. Cassie only had an inch on her and Hope seemed to be growing faster than her, as their height difference at the beginning of the year had been much more obvious.

"Let's just all go. Worst case scenario, we end up sneaking around without the cloak at all." Hermes tried to reason.

"That's a very bad worst case scenario." Cassie pointed out.

But that was the only agreement they could come to by that night, so the girls took the cloak and met Hermes outside of the Ravenclaw Common Room. With the three of them huddled underneath the cloak, they hurried out towards Hagrid's hut.

It was a very dark, cloudy night and they were a bit late arriving at Hagrid's hut because they'd had to wait for Peeves to get out of their way in the entrance hall, where he'd been playing tennis against the wall. Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey." Hagrid told them in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely." From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded to Hope as though the teddy was having his head torn off. "Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as the trio of them covered the crate with the invisibility cloak and stepped underneath it themselves. "Mommy will never forget you!"

Within five minutes, Hope was regretting her insistence on coming along. Actually, all three of them were regretting a lot of things, including the cloak's lack of size. Hope ended up crawling on her hands and knees, the crate resting on her back. She would have much preferred to ride on top of it but the crate was heavy enough as it was and neither of her friends were exactly Hercules reincarnate.

Going up stairs was the worst part. When either Cassie or Hermes needed a break, the other held it resting, or more than a little resting, on Hope's back as her hands and knees shook with the effort. Her leggings were ripped and her palms were scratched bloody by the time they got up to the last staircase. She debated the politeness of her two friends, since they got to walk and made her crawl and half-support the crate when _they_ got tired.

Then a sudden movement just ahead of them in front of the stairs made Cassie and Hermes almost drop the crate. It slammed into Hope's spine before they caught and she went flat against the floor. Forgetting that they were already invisible, the three of them froze, staring at the dark outlines of two people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared.

Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Pansy Parkinson, in a bright pink nightgown and bunny slippers, by the ear.

"Detention!" Professor McGonagall shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you-."

"You don't understand, Professor. Hope Potter's coming. She's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on. I shall see Professor Snape about you, Parkinson!"

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Not until they'd stepped out into the cold night air did they throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again. Hope stood up straight and stretched, wondering if her spine had been done permanent damage yet.

"Pansy's been given detention! Norbert's is going be gone. Tonight is the best night of my life." Cassie laughed.

"Speak for yourself." Hope moaned, wiping dust off her face.

Out in the open air, they waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate. About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness. Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. The three men had tattoos and long hair, but wide smiles and kind eyes. The one girl of the group wore punk clothes and had spiky pink hair. She was clumsy, but energetic and eager to get started.

They showed the trio the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it, the group showing no fear of the baby dragon. The pink haired girl, who they learned went by Tonks, skipped back over to them and told them, in a very fond tone, they were absolutely bonkers for doing this. Then everyone shook hands and thanked each other.

At last, Norbert was going... going... gone.

The three of them slipped back down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was off them. No more dragon. Pansy Parkinson in detention. What could spoil their happiness?

The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As they stepped into the corridor, Filch's face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.

"Well, well, well." He whispered. "We are in trouble."

They'd left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.

* * *

Things couldn't have been worse.

Filch took them down to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor, where they sat and waited without saying a word to each other. Hermes was trembling; he hadn't been in trouble since Halloween when he'd covered for them.

Excuses, alibis, and wild cover- up stories chased each other around Hope's brain, each more feeble than the last. She couldn't see how they were going to get out of trouble this time. They were cornered. How could they have been so stupid as to forget the cloak? There was no reason on earth that Professor McGonagall would accept for their being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone being up the tallest astronomy tower, which was out-of-bounds except for classes. Add Norbert and the invisibility cloak and they might as well be packing their bags already.

Had Hope thought that things couldn't have been worse? She was wrong. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Nadine.

"Hope!" Nadine burst out, the moment she saw the other three. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Pansy saying she was going to catch you, she said you had a drag-." Hope shook his head violently to shut Nadine up, but Professor McGonagall had seen. She looked more likely to breathe fire than Norbert as she towered over the three of them.

"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up in the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves." It was the first time Hermes had ever failed to answer a teacher's question. He was staring at his hiking boots he'd donned for the occasion, as still as a statue. "I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on. It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Pansy Parkinson some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get her out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught her. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?"

Hope caught Nadine's eye and tried to tell her without words that this wasn't true, because Nadine was looking stunned and hurt. Poor, blundering Nadine; Hope knew what it must have cost her to try and find them in the dark, to warn them.

"I'm disgusted. Four students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! Mr. Granger, I thought you had more sense. Potter, Malfoy, I should take you straight you head of house for this! All four of you will receive detentions. Yes, you too, Ms. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous. And fifty points will be taken from your houses."

"Fifty?" Hope gasped.

"Fifty points each." Professor McGonagall corrected, breathing heavily through her long, pointed nose.

"Professor, please-."

"You can't-."

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of first-year students."

As they all left the office, their spirits were low. Fifty points lost each. They'd never been popular, but now the four of them were dreading the dawn.


	19. From Bad To Worse

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N I said I would update everyday and I totally forgot on Saturday! My apologies. Please enjoy this updates even if they are a little late.**

* * *

Everyone passing the giant hourglasses that recorded the house points the next day thought there'd been a mistake. How could three houses be down so many points in one night? Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw was only down fifty each, but, once Pansy's own loss of points were taken into account, Slytherin was down a hundred and twenty points.

Everywhere Hope went, Gryffindors pointed and shouted their thanks for making their enemy lose so many points. Slytherins, on the other hand, were the worst type of enemies to make. They didn't loss their tempers or shout at her, but they made their anger known. Hope's things went missing. Crookshanks came back into the dormitory partly-shaved. Things were snuck into Hope's cauldron in Potions, causing everything to turn out wrong and Snape to become even more angry with her. She learned quickly to keep her books or notes off the table in the Great Hall, lest something be 'accidentally' spilled on them and ruin them. Eerily similar things happened to Cassie, but, in true Slytherin tradition, she pretended not to notice and the other Slytherins got bored with it and left her alone.

"They'll all forget this in a few weeks. Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them." Regina tried to reassure her.

"Fred and George are in the 'good house'." Hope shot back and that was the end of that.

It was a bit late to repair the damage, but Hope swore to herself not to meddle in things that weren't her business from now on. She'd had it with sneaking around and spying. Making sure she didn't get expelled from her one and only home took priority.

Hope was almost glad that the exams weren't far away. All the studying she had to do kept her mind off her misery. She, Regina, Cassie and Hermes kept to themselves, working all day, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charms and spells by heart, memorize the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions...

Then, about a week before the exams were due to start, Hope's new resolution not to interfere in anything that didn't concern her was put to an unexpected test. Walking back from the library on her own one afternoon, she heard somebody whimpering from a classroom up ahead. As she drew closer, she heard Quirrell's voice.

"No, no, not again, please-." It sounded as though someone was threatening him. Hope moved closer. "All right, all right..." She heard Quirrell sob.

Next second, Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode out of sight; Hope didn't think Quirrell had even noticed her. She waited until Quirrell's footsteps had disappeared, then peered into the classroom. It was empty, but a door stood ajar at the other end.

Hope was halfway toward it before she remembered what she'd promised herself about not meddling. All the same, she'd have gambled twelve Sorcerer's Stones that Snape had just left the room and from what Hope had just heard, Snape would be walking with a new spring in his step: Quirrell seemed to have given in at last.

Hope went back to the library, where Hermes and Cassie were testing each other on Astronomy and Regina was asleep against the table. Hope hit Regina with one of her books to wake her up and told the three of them what she'd heard.

"Snape's done it, then!" Regina cried, raking her fingers through her hair.

"If Quirrell's told him how to break his safe-guard-." Cassie began, eyes wide.

"There's still Fluffy, though." Hermes added quickly.

"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid." Regina put in, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding them. "I bet there's a book somewhere in here telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do, Hope?" The light of adventure was kindling again in Regina's eyes, but Hermes answered before Hope could.

"Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves we'll be thrown out for sure."

"But we've got no proof! Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he doesn't know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor. Who do you think they'll believe, him or four first years that are now known for getting into trouble? It's not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he'll think. And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining." Hope ranted.

Hermes looked convinced that the world was coming to an end, but Regina's eyes were still sparkling with an idea.

"If we just do a bit of poking around-."

"No. We've done enough poking around." Hope said flatly. "I would like to come back next year, so how about we focus on not getting expelled?" With that, everyone fell silent and went back to studying, though their thoughts constantly went elsewhere...

* * *

Hope had nearly forgotten about having to serve detention. Professor McGonagall, however, had not. A note was delivered to her and Cassie one morning in the Great Hall.

 _Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall._

 _Professor McGonagall_

Looking up, Hope saw Hermes frowning over a note of his own at the Ravenclaw table. At the Hufflepuff table, Nadine was sniffing and attempting not to cry, an identical note clutched in her fist. After a nudge and a point from Cassie, Hope saw that Pansy was crinkling up another note. They would all be serving detention together...

Just before eleven that night, Cassie and Hope threw on their green and silver scarves, bid goodbye to Crookshanks and went to the entrance hall. Nadine, Hermes and Pansy were already there. Filch was there too, smiling evilly.

"Follow me." Filch ordered, lighting a lamp and leading them outside. "I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh? Oh yes... hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me... It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out... hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my office, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed..." He trailed off, lost in the happy thoughts of torture. Everyone kept out of arm's reach of him, just in case.

Hope wondered what their punishment was going to be. It must be something really horrible or Filch wouldn't be sounding so delighted. The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing them into darkness. Ahead, Hope could see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut. Then they heard a distant shout.

"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started."

Hope's heart rose; if they were going to be working with Hagrid it wouldn't be so bad. Her relief must have showed on her face, because Filch said:

"I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, girl. It's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece." At this, Nadine let out a little moan, clutching Hope's hand for either protection or comfort, Hope wasn't sure which. Hermes was wide-eyed with shock. Both Pansy and Cassie stopped dead in their tracks.

"The forest?" Pansy parroted back. "We can't go in there at night!"

"That must be against school rules to make us go in there." Cassie protested.

Hagrid came striding toward them out of the dark, Fang at his heel. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder.

"Abou' time. I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right?" Hagrid asked, looking at all the kids except for Pansy.

"I shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid." Filch said coldly. "They're here to be punished, after all. I'll be back at dawn. For what's left of them." He added nastily and he turned and started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

Pansy now turned to Hagrid.

"I'm not going in that forest." She put her foot down, looking up at Hagrid as if challenging him.

"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts." Hagrid said fiercely. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yehve got ter pay fer it."

"But this is servant stuff, it's not for students to do. I thought we'd be copying lines or something, if my father knew I was doing this-." Cassie started.

"He'd tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts. Copyin' lines! What good's that ter anyone? Yeh'll do summat useful or yeh'll get out." Hagrid told her firmly. Cassie hung her head in shame. Pansy still looked ready to argue, but one look at Hagrid's expression stopped her and she settled for frowning down at her shoes. "Right then. Now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

He led them to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted their hair as they looked into the forest.

"Look there." Hagrid told them. "See that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery." Nadine moaned, clutching Hope's hand tighter.

"And what if whatever hurt that unicorn finds us first?" Pansy demanded.

"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang." Hagrid assured her. "An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least."

"I want Fang!" Pansy announced, looking at the large dog.

"All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward." Hagrid told her. "So me, Hope, an' Cassie'll go one way an' Pansy, Nadine, Hermes an' Fang'll go the other. Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now... That's it. An' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh. So, be careful. Let's go."

The forest was black and silent. A little way into it they reached a fork in the earth path, and the groups split up. Hope felt bad that Nadine was stuck with Pansy, but hoped Hermes would be able to keep some order. As it was, she wasn't feeling too good about her own situation. The forest was vast and intimidating. She felt like a cat; she wanted to bolt up the nearest tree at any sign of danger.

They walked in silence, their eyes on the ground. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves. Hope saw that Hagrid looked very worried.

"What could be killing unicorns?" She questioned, mostly because the silence was creeping her out more than she cared to admit.

"I dunno know. It's not easy ter catch a unicorn, they're powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before." That wasn't what Hope would describe as comforting.

They walked past a mossy tree stump. Hope could hear running water; there must be a stream somewhere close by. There were still spots of unicorn blood here and there along the winding path.

"GET BEHIND THAT TREE!" Hagrid shouted suddenly. He seized the two girls and hoisted them off the path behind a towering oak. He pulled out an arrow and fitted it into his crossbow, raising it, ready to fire.

The three of them listened. Something was slithering over dead leaves nearby: it sounded like a cloak trailing along the ground. Hagrid was squinting up the dark path, but after a few seconds, the sound faded away.

"I knew it." He murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be. Right, follow me, but careful, now."

They walked more slowly, ears straining for the faintest sound. Cassie looked like she'd been given a heart-attack by Hagrid's reaction; she was pale and trembling as they continued on. Hope kept readjusting her grip on her wand, her pals sweaty despite the cool air.

Suddenly, in a clearing ahead, something definitely moved.

"Who's there?" Hagrid called. "Show yerself. I'm armed!"

And into the clearing came... Was it a man, or a horse? To the waist, a man, with red hair and beard, but below that was a horse's gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. Harry and Cassie's jaws dropped.

"Oh, it's you, Ronan." Hagrid in relief said. "How are yeh?" He walked forward and shook the centaur's hand.

"Good evening to you, Hagrid." Ronan greeted him. He had a deep, sorrowful voice. "Were you going to shoot me?"

"Can't be too careful, Ronan. There's summat bad loose in this forest. This is Hope Potter an' Cassie Malfoy, by the way. Students up at the school. An' this is Ronan, you two. He's a centaur."

"We'd noticed." Cassie informed him, still in awe.

"Good evening. Students, are you? And do you learn much, up at the school?" Ronan questioned. The girls exchanged looks.

"A bit..." They responded.

"A bit. Well, that's something." Ronan sighed. He flung back his head and stared at the sky. "Mars is bright tonight."

"Yeah." Hagrid agreed, glancing up, too. The girls craned their necks back to look at the sky. Nothing looked any different than any other night. "Listen, I'm glad we've run inter yeh, Ronan, 'cause there's a unicorn bin hurt. You seen anythin'?" Hagrid added. Ronan didn't answer immediately. He stared unblinkingly upward, then sighed again.

"Always the innocent are the first victims. So it has been for ages past, so it is now."

"Yeah, but have yeh seen anythin', Ronan? Anythin' unusual?"

"Mars is bright tonight." Ronan repeated while Hagrid watched him impatiently. "Unusually bright."

"Yeah, but I was meanin' anythin' unusual a bit nearer home. So yeh haven't noticed anythin' strange?" Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. At last, he said:

"The forest hides many secrets." A movement in the trees behind Ronan made Hagrid raise his bow again, but it was only a second centaur, black-haired and bodied and wilder-looking than Ronan.

"Hullo, Bane. All right?" Hagrid greeted him.

"Good evening, Hagrid, I hope you are well?"

"Well enough. Look, I've jus' bin askin' Ronan, you seen anythin' odd in here lately? There's a unicorn bin injured. Would yeh know anythin' about it?" Bane walked over to stand next to Ronan. He looked skyward.

"Mars is bright tonight." He replied simply. Hope and Cassie exchanged looks again. Was brain damage common with centaurs?

"We've heard." Hagrid said grumpily. "Well, if either of you do see anythin', let me know, won't yeh? We'll be off, then."

The girls followed him out of the clearing, staring over their shoulders at Ronan and Bane until the trees blocked their view.

"Never try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon." Hagrid complained irritably.

"Are there many of them in here?" Cassie asked.

"Oh, a fair few... Keep themselves to themselves mostly, but they're good enough about turnin' up if ever I want a word. They're deep, mind, centaurs... they know things... jus' don' let on much."

"D'you think that was a centaur we heard earlier?" Hope asked.

"Did that sound like hooves to you?" Hagrid asked dryly.

"Never mind."

"Nah, if yeh ask me, that was what's bin killin' the unicorns. Never heard anythin' like it before."

They walked on through the dense, dark trees. Hope kept looking nervously over her shoulder. She had the nasty feeling they were being watched. She was very glad they had Hagrid and his crossbow with them. They had just passed a bend in the path when Cassie grabbed Hagrid's arm.

"Hagrid! Look! Red sparks, the others are in trouble!"

"You two wait here! Stay on the path, I'll come back for yeh!"

They heard him crashing away through the undergrowth and stood looking at each other, very scared, until they couldn't hear anything but the rustling of leaves around them.


	20. Shadows In The Night

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

The minutes dragged by. Their ears seemed sharper than usual. Hope's seemed to be picking up every sigh of the wind, every cracking twig. What was going on? Where were the others? Cassie looked ready to puke.

"I don't care about Pansy, but what about Hermes and Nadine?" Hope whispered.

"I don't know." Cassie whispered back. Hope thought that was the first time those words had left the rich girl's mouth.

At last, a great crunching noise announced Hagrid's return. Hermes, Nadine, Pansy and Fang were with him. Hagrid was fuming. Pansy, it seemed, had sneaked up behind Nadine and screamed at her as a joke. Nadine had panicked and sent up the sparks.

"We'll be lucky ter catch anythin' now, with the racket you were makin'. Right, we're changin' groups. Nadine, you stay with me an' Cassie. Hope, you go with Hermes, Fang an' this idiot." He announced. Then he added in a whisper to Hope: "Sorry, but she'll have a harder time frightenin' you an' we've gotta get this done."

So Hope set off into the heart of the forest with Hermes, Pansy and Fang. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick.

Hope thought the blood seemed to be getting thicker. There were splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been thrashing around in pain close by. Hope could see a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak.

"Look." She murmured, holding out her arm to stop Hermes. Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. Hermes and Hope inched closer.

It was the unicorn all right and it was dead. Hope had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly white on the dark leaves. Hope wanted to cry at the sight.

Hope and Hermes had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made them both freeze where they stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered... Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. Hermes, Hope, Pansy and Fang all stood transfixed. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

Suddenly, Pansy let out a terrible scream and bolt. Fang whined and raced after her, like the bloody coward Hagrid had warned them he was. Hermes grabbed Hope's hand and they started backpedaling, still staring in shock at the sight before them. The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Hope. Unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Hope. She and Hermes tried to run, but then a pain like she'd never felt before pierced Hope's head. It was as though her scar were on fire.

She fell over, vision blurring. She was vaguely aware of Hermes trying to drag her back up and she thought she was trying to tell him to run, but she wasn't sure if the words actually got past her lips. Through her daze, she heard hooves behind them, galloping, and something jumped clean over the two, charging at the figure.

Hope squeezed her eyes shut, crying out with pain. When the pain finally faded and she looked up, the figure had gone. A centaur was standing over her, not Ronan or Bane. This one looked younger; he had white-blond hair and a palomino body.

"Are you all right?" The centaur asked as Hermes got Hope to her feet.

"Yes... thank you... what was that?" Hope stammered. The centaur didn't answer. He had astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Hope, his eyes lingering on the scar that stood out, livid, on Hope's forehead.

"You are the Potter girl." It wasn't a question. "You had better get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time. Especially for you. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way. My name is Firenze." He added as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Hope and Hermes could clamber onto his back.

There was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. Ronan and Bane came bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty.

"Firenze!" Bane thundered. "What are you doing? You have a human on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?"

"Do you realize who this is? This is the Potter girl. The quicker she leaves this forest, the better."

"What have you been telling her?" Bane growled. "Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?" Ronan pawed the ground nervously.

"I'm sure Firenze thought he was acting for the best." He said in his gloomy voice. Bane kicked his back legs in anger.

"For the best! What is that to do with us? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!"

Firenze suddenly reared on to his hind legs in anger, so that Hope had to grab his shoulders to stay on. Hermes linked his arms around her waist in a tight grip so he didn't slip off either.

"Do you not see that unicorn?" Firenze bellowed at Bane. "Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must."

And Firenze whisked around; with Hope and Hermes clutching on as best they could, they plunged off into the trees, leaving Ronan and Bane behind them. Hope didn't have a clue what was going on.

"Why's Bane so angry?" She asked over the whistling of the air around them. "What was that thing you saved me from, anyway?"

Firenze slowed to a walk, warned the two of them to keep their head bowed in case of low-hanging branches, but did not answer Hope's question. They made their way through the trees in silence for so long that Hope thought Firenze didn't want to talk to her anymore. They were passing through a particularly dense patch of trees, however, when Firenze suddenly stopped.

"Hope Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"

"No." Hope admitted, startled by the odd question.

"We've only used the horn and tail hair in Potions." Hermes added.

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn. Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips." Hope stared at the back of Firenze's head, which was dappled silver in the moonlight.

"But who'd be that desperate? If you're going to be cursed forever, deaths better, isn't it?"

"It is." Firenze agreed. "Unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else. Something that will bring you back to full strength and power. Something that will mean you can never die. Ms. Potter, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?

"The Sorcerer's Stone... The Elixir of Life! But I don't understand who-."

"Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?"

It was as though an iron fist had clenched suddenly around Hope's heart. Over the rustling of the trees, she seemed to hear once more what Hagrid had told her on the night they had met:

" _Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die."_

She had just seen Voldemort. She knew it, just like she'd known it was her parents in that mirror or that Snape was trying to steal the stone. She didn't need to be told or spoon-fed the answer. Voldemort had been within in feet of her that night. She shuddered involuntarily.

"Hope, Hermes, are you all right?" Cassie was running toward them down the path, Hagrid puffing along behind her.

"I'm fine." Hope whispered without really hearing herself. "The unicorn's dead, Hagrid, it's in that clearing back there."

"This is where I leave you." Firenze murmured as Hagrid hurried off to examine the unicorn. "You are safe now." Hope and Hermes slid off his back. "Good luck, Hope Potter. The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times." He turned and cantered back into the depths of the forest, leaving Hope shivering behind him.

* * *

Hope didn't think she would ever sleep again. The curtains were drawn around her bed and Crookshanks was curled up next to her, but none of the former comfort she'd gotten from the arrangement was there. She rolled over again and again, trying to block the image of the cloaked figure out of her mind. Her scar still hurt.

She put her hand under her pillow to support her head more and jumped when she felt something slippery under her fingers. Moving her pillow, she saw her invisibility cloak folded neatly underneath them. There was a note pinned to it:

 _Just in case._

* * *

When the quartet gathered on an abandoned staircase the next morning to talk, neither Cassie nor Regina could believe what had happened. Hope was still in shock as she told the other two what had happened. Her hands were still shaking and she was exhausted; she hadn't been able to sleep the night before and, despite Cassie's pestering, hadn't told anyone else what had happened yet.

"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort's waiting in the forest... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich..."

"Stop saying the name!" Regina cried in a terrified whisper, as if she thought Voldemort could hear them. Hope wasn't listening.

"Firenze saved us, but maybe he shouldn't have done so... The other centaurs were furious... One was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... They must show that Voldemort's coming back..."

"Stop saying the name!" Regina repeated, curling in on herself on the steps.

Everyone was huddled together, all looking very pale, tired and too young to be dealing with any of this. Hope knew she looked the same, or perhaps worse. She was the youngest of the group, as they liked to remind her, and definitely the smallest. She was also the most scared in that moment. She couldn't stop talking.

"So all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone. Then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off... Well, I suppose the centaurs be happy."

Hermes looked very frightened, but he had a word of comfort:

"Hope, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic."

They sat there in silence once more. Hope had only one thing on her mind: when had everything gone so wrong?


	21. Out Of Sight, Not Out Of Mind

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

In years to come, Hope would never quite remember how she had managed to get through her exams when she half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment. Yet the days crept by and there could be no doubt that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door.

It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where they did their written papers. They had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anti-Cheating spell. They had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tapdance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox; points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. Snape made them all nervous, breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion.

Hope did the best she could, trying to ignore the stabbing pains in her forehead, which had been bothering her ever since her trip into the forest. Cassie thought that Hope had a bad case of exam nerves because Hope couldn't sleep, but the truth was that Hope kept being woken by her old nightmare, except that it was now worse than ever because there was a hooded figure dripping blood in it.

Her friends didn't seem as concerned about the matter. They were too focused on their own exams to worry about the possibility of a dark lord rising back to power and killing people. Go figure.

Their very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self-stirring cauldrons and they'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Hope couldn't help cheering with the rest.

"That was far easier than I thought it would be." Hermes said as they joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."

Hermes always liked to go through their exam papers afterward, but Regina said this made her feel ill, so they wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were tickling the tentacles of a giant squid, which was basking in the warm shallows.

"No more studying." Regina sighed happily, stretching out on the grass. "You could look more cheerful, Hope, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet."

Hope was rubbing her forehead.

"I wish I knew what this means!" She burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting. It's happened before, but never as often as this."

"Go to Madam Pomfrey." Hermes suggested.

"I'm not ill. I think it's a warning... it means danger's coming..." She murmured. Regina, however, couldn't get worked up, it was too hot.

"Does it tell you to do bad things too?" Cassie asked. Hope glared at her.

"Hope, relax, Hermes is right, the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry. And Nadine will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down." Hope nodded, but she couldn't shake off a lurking feeling that there was something she'd forgotten to do, something very important. When she tried to explain this, Hermes said:

"That's just the exams. I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remembered we'd done that one." Hope was quite sure the unsettled feeling didn't have anything to do with work, though.

She watched an owl flutter toward the school across the bright blue sky, a note clamped in its mouth. Hagrid was the only one who ever sent her letters. Hagrid would never betray Dumbledore. Hagrid would never tell anyone how to get past Fluffy... never... but... Hope suddenly jumped to her feet.

"Where're you going?" Regina asked sleepily.

"I've just thought of something." Hope had turned white. "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now."

The four of them ran for Hagrid's hut with Hope in the lead. Regina was barely keeping up, still half-asleep. The grassy slope was slippery underneath their feet and it really was too hot for running, but the other three saw that Hope had no intention on slowing down.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?" Hope asked.

Hagrid was sitting in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up and he was shelling peas into a large bowl. He looked up as they skidded to a stop in front of him.

"Hullo." He said, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"

"Yes, please." Regina panted, but Hope cut her off.

"No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"

"Dunno." Hagrid said casually. "He wouldn' take his cloak off." He saw the four of them look stunned and raised his eyebrows. "It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head. That's the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up." Hope sank down next to the bowl of peas.

"What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

"Mighta come up." Hagrid agreed, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah... he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here... He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after... so I told him... an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon... an' then... I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks... Let's see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted... but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home... So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy..."

"And did he... did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Hope asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

"Well, yeah, how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep-." Hagrid suddenly looked horrified. "I shouldn'ta told yeh that! Forget I said it! Hey, where're yeh goin'?"

Hope, Cassie, Hermes and Regina didn't speak to each other at all until they came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore." Hope finally said. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak. It must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up. Where's Dumbledore's office?"

They looked around, as if hoping to see a giant neon sign pointing them in the right direction. They had never been told where Dumbledore lived, nor did they know anyone who had been sent to see him. Even Fred and George had never done something bad enough to warrant getting sent to the headmaster instead of Professor McGonagall.

"We'll just have to-." Hope began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.

"What are you four doing inside?" It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books.

"We want to see Professor Dumbledore." Hermes said, rather bravely, the others thought.

"See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do. "Why?"

"It's sort of secret." Hope said, but she wished at once she hadn't, because Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared.

"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago." She said coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."

"He's gone? Now?" Hope asked frantically.

"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time-."

"But this is important."

"Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter?"

"Look." Hope told her, throwing caution to the winds. "Professor, it's about the Sorcerer's tone-." Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn't pick them up.

"How do you know-." She spluttered.

"Professor, I think, I know, that Sn... that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore." She eyed Hope with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow." She said finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."

"But Professor-."

"Potter, I know what I'm talking about." She said shortly. She bent down and gathered up the fallen books. "I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine."

But they didn't.

"It's tonight." Hope said, once she was sure Professor McGonagall was out of earshot. "Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up."

"But what can we-." Hermes stopped, eyeing something behind them. The other three wheeled round. Snape was standing there.

"Good afternoon." He said smoothly. They stared at him. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this." He added with an odd, twisted smile.

"We were-." Hope began, without any idea what she was going to say.

"You want to be more careful. Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it?" Hope flushed. They turned to go outside, but Snape called them back. "Be warned, Potter. Any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you." He strode off in the direction of the staff-room.

Out on the stone steps, Hope turned to the others.

"Right, here's what we've got to do." She whispered urgently. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape. Wait outside the staff room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermes, you'd better do that."

"Why me?"

"It's obvious. You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know." Regina started to badly intimidate Hermes. "Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong-."

"Oh, shut up." Hermes snapped, but he agreed to go and watch out for Snape.

"And we'd better stay outside the third-floor corridor." Hope told Cassie and Regina. "Come on."

But that part of the plan didn't work. No sooner had the trio reached the door separating Fluffy from the rest of the school than Professor McGonagall turned up again and, this time, she lost her temper.

"I suppose you think you're harder to get past than a pack of enchantments!" She stormed. "Enough of this nonsense! If I hear you've come anywhere near here again, I'll take another fifty points from both your houses! Yes, Weasley, from my own house as well!"

The trio went back to the the entrance hall. Hope had just said 'at least Hermes's on Snape's tail' when Hermes came hurrying over to them.

"I'm sorry, Hope. Snape came out and asked me what I was doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him and I've only just got away. I don't know where Snape went."

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Hope asked. The other three simply stared at her. She was pale and her eyes were glittering with barely contained madness. "I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."

"You're mad!"

"You can't!"

"After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"

"SO WHAT?" Hope shouted. Everyone flinched and looked around for anyone nearby. The coast was clear, but Hope lowered her voice as she continued on: "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if your house wins the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll wait for Voldemort to find me. It's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you three say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"

"You're right Hope." Hermes said in a small voice.

"I'll use the invisibility cloak. It's just lucky I got it back." She mused, raking her fingers through her curly hair.

"But will it cover all four of us?" Regina questioned.

"All... all four of us?"

"Oh, come off it, you don't think we'd let you go alone?" Regina snapped, blue eyes blazing with determination.

"Of course not." Hermes said briskly, as if the notion was silly. He looked like he was gearing himself for something foolish.

"You wouldn't make it five feet without us." Cassie agreed, crossing her arms tightly against her chest, as if to shield herself from what was to come.

"But if we get caught, you guys will be expelled, too." Hope protested. She could take being back on the streets. But she couldn't take her friends suffering for her.

"Not if I can help it." Hermes told them grimly. Flitwick told me in secret that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam. They're not throwing me out after that."

"Tonight then." Hope said, with grim determination.

"Tonight." The others agreed with sharp nods.

"I'll go through my books. Maybe there's something there to get us past the enchantments." Hermes decided, hurrying off towards Ravenclaw Tower.

"I have a few books myself. It wouldn't hurt to skim through them." Cassie agreed, starting towards the Slytherin dungeon.

"I'll gather some things that might help us." Hope added, hurrying after her dorm-mate.

Regina stood alone in the entrance hall. She looked around uselessly and said, to no one:

"I guess I'll go take a nap." She pumped her fist in a half-heartedly determined way and then scampered off towards Gryffindor Tower.


	22. Down The Rabbit Hole

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hope was a nervous wreck that night. She kept peeking out into the Slytherin Common Room, waiting for everyone to go to bed so that she and Cassie could leave. She didn't feel ready in the slightest, but she had no choice. Not anymore.

Cassie didn't act much braver either. She had taken three showers, changed outfits four times and screamed when a large fish swam past the window. Hope pretended not to notice any of that, much to the blonde's relief.

Finally, Hope looked out at the Common Room and saw it was empty. She raced back into her dormitory to grab her things. She'd discarded her robes in favor of plain leggings and a loose t-shirt. She threw her favorite green hoodie on for luck and then threw her hair up into a ponytail. She grabbed her wand and stuck the small bag she'd once upon a time used to transport money out of Gringotts into her boot. Inside, there were a couple bobby pins to pick locks, a few band-aids and some gum in case anyone got peckish. Maybe they would be useless, but Hope hated going into something completely unprepared. Fluffy liked music, she remembered, so she dug out the flute that Hagrid had given her and stuffed it into the pocket of her hoodie. She would just have to remember which pocket held the wand that could save her life and which pocket held the flute that would do absolutely nothing in a fight of any kind.

Cassie came out of the bathroom, wearing a cute green sweater dress and her hair done up in an elaborate braided bun.

"We're going to possibly fight Voldemort, not party with pure-bloods." Hope hissed at her.

"If I die, I'll die pretty." Cassie tried to joke, but her smile faltered.

"Come on. It's time to go." Hope snatched up her invisibility cloak, hugged Crookshanks for what she hoped wouldn't be the last time and then they left. Slipping through the passageway, they came out at the bottom of the stairs and threw the cloak over the both of them.

They hurried up the stairs with Cassie whispering a reminder that they needed to swing by both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tower to get Regina and Hermes. As if Hope would've forgotten...

"You're sneaking around again." They froze at the corner, foolishly thinking someone had seen them through the cloak. But, then, they realized two things. One: the voice wasn't directed at them. Two: the voice belonged to none other than Nadine Longbottom.

Peering around the corner, they spotted Nadine, clutching her toad who had obviously made another desperate escape attempt, standing in front of the portrait entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room. Hermes and Regina were standing in front of her, caught red-handed.

"No, no, no." Hermes said quickly. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Nadine?"

"Seriously, go." Regina added, harsher.

"You'll be caught again." Nadine protested. Cassie and Hope crept forward. Hope didn't miss the fact that Cassie brought out her wand.

"You don't understand. This is important." Hermes insisted. But Nadine was clearly steeling herself to do something desperate.

"If you don't go back, I'll... I'll fight you."

"Nadine!" Regina exploded. "Don't be an idiot-."

"Don't you call me an idiot!" Nadine shot back, her eyes blazing with a fury Hope had never seen before. Apparently, neither had Regina, because she looked just as shocked. "I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"

"Yes, but not to us." Regina told her in exasperation.

Cassie raised her wand, the tip peeking out from the cloak.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Nadine's arms snapped to her sides. Her legs sprang together. Her whole body rigid, she swayed where she stood and then fell flat on her face, stiff as a board. Regina let out a gasp and Hermes grabbed his wand, looking around frantically. Hope and Cassie came out from underneath the cloak with tight smiles that didn't relieve anyone. The four all rushed to Nadine to roll her over. Nadine's jaws were jammed together so she couldn't speak. Only her brown eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.

"What've you done to her?" Hope whispered.

"Full-body bind. I'm sorry, Nadine." Cassie told the girl sincerely.

"We had to, Nadine, no time to explain." Hope added.

"You'll understand later, Nadine." Regina put in.

"Let's put her in the Common Room so she's just just lying here." Hermes suggested.

"Do you know how to get in?" Hope asked.

"You tickle the pear."

"You... what?"

Hermes demonstrated how to get into the Hufflepuff Common Room by tickling the image of a pear on the portrait. He looked at them with a smile, pleased with himself for knowing the trick.

"Passwords... Riddles... Tickling. All make perfect sense." Hope said sarcastically as they rolled Nadine down the short step into the empty Hufflepuff Common Room.

But leaving Nadine lying hexed and motionless didn't feel like a very good omen. In their nervous state, every statue's shadow looked like Filch, every distant breath of wind sounded like Peeves swooping down on them. At the foot of the first set of stairs, they spotted Mrs. Norris skulking near the top.

"Oh, let's kick her, just this once." Regina whispered in Hope's ear, but Hope shook her head. As they climbed carefully around her, Mrs. Norris turned her lamplike eyes on them, but didn't do anything.

They didn't meet anyone else until they reached the staircase up to the third floor. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that people would trip.

"Who's there?" He said suddenly as they climbed toward him. He narrowed his wicked black eyes. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?" He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at them. "Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen."

Hope had a sudden idea.

"Peeves." She said, in a hoarse whisper. "The Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible." Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairs.

"So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, Sir." He said greasily. "My mistake, my mistake, I didn't see you. Of course I didn't, you're invisible. Forgive old Peevsie his little joke, sir."

"I have business here, Peeves." Hope croaked. "Stay away from this place tonight."

"I will, sir, I most certainly will." Peeves said, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you." And he scooted off.

"Brilliant, Hope!" Regina whispered as Hope coughed from the odd voice she'd put on.

A few seconds later, they were there, outside the third-floor corridor... and the door was already ajar.

"Well, there you are." Hope said quietly. "Snape's already got past Fluffy."

Seeing the open door somehow seemed to impress upon all four of them what was facing them. Underneath the cloak, Hope turned to the other three. Regina was standing there in her torn-up denim shorts and old t-shirt that Hope could have sworn was Fred's no less than two months ago. Her hair was in pig-tails and she was pale beneath her freckles. Cassie looked like she would die pretty still, but she was trembling and nervous. Hermes was in a Henley shirt and sweatpants, his hair messy than usual from behind under the cloak. They all looked like the kids they were. Hope knew she didn't look any better, standing there, looking _up_ at them in her ripped leggings and faded hoodie.

"If you want to go back, I won't blame you." She finally said. "You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."

"Don't be stupid." Regina told her.

"We're coming." Hermes added bravely.

"Let's go." Cassie agreed, nodding far too fast and too hard to be a calm movement.

Hope pushed the door open a little more. As the door creaked open, low, rumbling growls met their ears. All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them yet.

"What's that at it's feet?" Hermes whispered.

"It's a harp. You play music on it-." Cassie started.

"I know what a harp is, Cassie!"

"Snape must've used it. Funny mental image there, huh? Snape sitting here, playing a harp of all things." Regina laughed nervously.

"Fluffy must wake up after the music stops." Hope added quickly, though Regina's comment wanted to make her laugh too if she wasn't so nervous. "Well, here it goes..."

Hope put Hagrid's flute to her lips and blew. It wasn't really a tune, but from the first note the beast's eyes began to droop. Hope hardly drew breath. Slowly, the dog's growls ceased. It tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.

"Keep playing." Regina warned as they slipped out of the cloak and crept toward the trapdoor.

"I don't think she planned on stopping." Cassie shot back. They could feel the dog's hot, smelly breath as they approached the giant heads.

"I think we'll be able to pull the door open." Regina said, peering over the dog's back. "Want to go first, Hermes?"

"No, I don't!"

"All right." Regina gritted her teeth and stepped carefully over the dog's legs. She bent and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open easily.

"What can you see?" Hermes said anxiously.

"Nothing, just black. There's no way of climbing down, we'll just have to drop. Cassie, come here, I'll shove you down."

"How about I shove you down, Weasley?" Cassie shot back. Whether or not they were joking was hard to tell; everyone's voices were tight and anxious.

Hope, who was still playing the flute with Hermes at her side, waved at the two of them to get their attention and pointed at herself.

"You want to go first? Are you sure? I don't know how deep this thing goes." Regina pointed out. Hope didn't look away but instead glared at Regina, pressuring her into agreement. Finally, Regina sighed. "Give the flute to Hermes so he can keep Fluffy asleep."

Hope handed the flute over. In the few seconds' silence, the dog growled and twitched, but the moment Hermes began to play, it fell back into its deep sleep. Hope climbed over it and looked down through the trapdoor. There was no sign of the bottom.

She lowered herself through the hole until she was hanging on by her fingertips. Then she looked up at Regina and Cassie and said:

"If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and get a message to Dumbledore, right?"

"Right." Cassie agreed, nodding stiffly.

"See you in a minute, I hope..." And Hope let go.

Cold, damp air rushed past her as she fell down, down, down... She screamed as she fell, having enough time to think she had royally screwed up and was going to die when she hit whatever it was on the bottom. And then... She landed. With a funny, muffled sort of thump she landed on something soft. She sat up and felt around, her eyes not used to the gloom. Somehow, she hadn't lost her glasses on the fall, so she just had to push them further up her nose. It felt as though she was sitting on some sort of plant.

"It's okay!" She called up to the light the size of a postage stamp, which was the open trapdoor. "It's a soft landing, you can jump!"

Regina followed right away, with a quick scream of her own. She landed, sprawled, next to Hope and turned to looked at her friend with wide, confused eyes.

"What's this stuff?"

Cassie landed next to them, her foot narrowly missing Hope's head.

"Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall. Come on, Hermes!" Hope yelled. The distant music stopped. There was a loud bark from the dog, but Hermes had already jumped. He landed nearly on top of Regina.

"We must be miles under the school." He gasped.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really." Regina put in.

"Lucky!" Hermes shouted. "Look at you guys!" He leaped up and struggled toward a damp wall. He had to struggle because the moment he had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. As for the other three, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing.

Hermes had freed himself before the plant got a firm grip on him. Now he watched in horror as the three girls fought to pull the plant off them, but the more they strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.

"Stop moving!" Hermes ordered them. "I know what this is: it's Devil's Snare!"

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help." Regina snarled, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around her throat.

"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" Hermes snapped back.

"I can't breathe!" Hope gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around her chest. It was tightening across her collarbone and rib cage; the feeling of not being able to take a deep breath was making her start to panic.

"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare... what did Professor Sprout say? It likes the dark and damp..." Hermes tried to remember.

"Fire!" Cassie shouted, trying to shield her face and neck.

"Yes! Of course! But there's no wood!" Hermes cried, wringing his hands.

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Regina bellowed. "ARE YOU A WIZARD OR NOT?"

"Oh, right!" Hermes whipped out his wand, waved it, muttered something and sent a jet of bluebell flames at the plant. In a matter of seconds, the three trapped friends felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies and they were able to pull free.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermes, Cassie." Hope gasped as she joined the others by the wall. She pulled up her shirt to the hem of her training bra; bruises were already forming on her rib-cage. She pushed her shirt down again and tried to take deep breaths.

"Yeah. And lucky Cassie doesn't lose her head in a crisis. 'There's no wood,' honestly." Regina mocked bitterly.

"This way." Hope interrupted what was sure to become a full-fledged argument. She pointed down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward and Hope was reminded of Gringotts. With an unpleasant jolt of the heart, she remembered the dragons said to be guarding vaults in the wizards' bank. If they met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon... Norbert had been bad enough...

"Can you hear something?" Regina whispered. Hope listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?"

"I don't know... sounds like... wings."

"There's light ahead. I can see something moving."

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" Regina asked in a whisper.

"Probably. They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once... well, there's no other choice... I'll run." Hope offered. Before anyone could protest, Hope took a deep breath, covered her face with her arms and sprinted across the room. She expected to feel sharp beaks and claws tearing at her any second, but nothing happened. She reached the door untouched. She pulled the handle, but it was locked. The other three followed her. They tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermes tried his Alohomora charm or Hope tried to manually pick the lock with her hair pins.

"Now what?" Regina complained.

"These birds... They can't be here just for decoration." Hermes mused. They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering... glittering?

"That's no bird." Hope said dramatically. They all looked at her; Hermes smothered a laugh behind his hand. "Stars Wars: A New Hope. That's no moon? No? _Wizards_." Hope scoffed before she went on, more seriously: "They're keys! Winged keys. Look carefully. So that must mean..."

She looked around the chamber while the other three squinted up at the flock of keys. Four broomsticks were lined up in the corner; she hadn't noticed when she was sprinting across the room the first time. She nudged the others.

"Look! We've got to catch the key to the door."

"But there are hundreds of them!" Regina complained. Cassie examined the lock on the door.

"We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one. Probably silver, like the handle." She noted.

They each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. They grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one. But Hope had two advantages. One, she was a natural at flying. Two, she had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. It was a survival mechanism. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, she noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and stuffed roughly into the keyhole.

"That one!" She called to the others. "That big one... there... no, there. With bright blue wings. The feathers are all crumpled on one side."

Regina went speeding in the direction that Hope was pointing, crashed into the ceiling and nearly fell off her broom.

"We've got to close in on it!" Hope called, not taking her eyes off the key with the damaged wing.

"Regina, you come at it from above. Hermes, stay below and stop it from going down. Cassie, come at it from your side. I'll try and catch it. Right, NOW!"

Regina dived, Hermes rocketed upward and Cassie streaked at it from her side. The key dodged all of them and sped right towards Hope. It went right past her, but it was headed towards the wall. Hope spun her broom around and leaned forward. With a nasty, crunching noise, she had pinned it against the stone with one hand. Her friends' cheers echoed around the high chamber.

They landed quickly, and Hope ran to the door, the key struggling in her hand. She rammed it into the lock and turned. It worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice.

"Ready?" Hope asked the other three, her hand on the door handle. They nodded. She pulled the door open.


	23. The Young Kings and Queens

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Having a fever averaging one-hundred-and-one for four days straight has a way of not making you in the mood to write or update. But here it is. I hope you enjoy, even if it is late.**

* * *

The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight. They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. Shudders ran down the quartets spines; the towering white chessmen had no faces.

"Now what do we do?" Hope whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Regina asked. "We've got to play our way across the room." Behind the white pieces they could see another door.

"How?" Hermes asked nervously.

"I think, we're going to have to be chessmen." Regina walked up to a black knight and put her hand out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Regina. "Do we have to join you to get across?" The black knight nodded.

Regina turned to the other three.

"I suppose we've got to take the place of four of the black pieces..." She mused. The other three stayed quiet, watching Regina think. Finally she said: "Now, don't be offended or anything, but none of you are that good at chess-."

"We're not offended." Hope said quickly. "Just tell us what to do."

"Well, Hope, you take the place of that bishop. Hermes, next to her instead of that castle. Cassie, the bishop on the other side."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to be a knight."

The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words a knight, both bishops and a castle turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board, leaving four empty squares that Hope, Regina, Cassie and Hermes took.

"White always plays first in chess. Yes... look..." A white pawn had moved forward two squares. Regina started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever she sent them. Hope's knees were trembling. What if they lost? "Hope, move diagonally four squares to the right."

Their first real shock came when their other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board, where he lay quite still, facedown.

"Had to let that happen." Regina said, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermes go on."

Every time one of their men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. Twice, Regina only just noticed in time that one of her friends were in danger. She herself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones.

"We're nearly there." She muttered suddenly. "Let me think let me think..." The white queen turned her blank face toward him. "Yes... It's the only way... I've got to be taken."

"NO!" Everyone shouted at once. Panic worked it's way up into Hope's throat, forming a lump there. She'd seen what the white pieces did when they took a black piece. She wouldn't, she _couldn't,_ just let that happen to Regina. Her friend. Her family.

"That's chess!" Regina snapped, her eyes blazing as she looked at all of them. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she'll take me. That leaves you free to checkmate the king, Hope!"

"But-."

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?"

"Regina-."

"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!" There was no alternative. Everyone could see that. It didn't mean they liked it. "Ready?" Regina called, her face pale but determined. "Here I go, now, don't hang around once you've won."

She stepped forward and the white queen pounced. She struck Regina hard across the head with her stone arm and she crashed to the floor. Hope screamed but stayed on her square as the white queen dragged Regina to one side. She looked as if she'd been knocked out.

Shaking, Hope moved three spaces to the left. The white king took off his crown and threw it at Hope's feet. They had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear.

With one last desperate look back at Regina, the trio charged through the door and up the next passageway.

"What if she's-?" Hermes started.

"She'll be all right." Hope cut in, trying to convince herself.

"What do you think is next?" Cassie asked quietly. Her hair was coming lose from her bun and her dress was dirty. She looked more shaken than any of them.

"We've had Sprout's, that was the Devil's Snare; Flitwick must've put charms on the keys; McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Snape's." Hermes ticked off on his fingers.

They had reached another door.

"All right?" Hope whispered.

"Go on." Cassie nodded. Hope pushed it open.

A disgusting smell met their noses, but an even more disgusting sight met their eyes. A mountain troll, even larger than the one they'd taken on in the bathroom. It was lumbering around in the small room and it didn't take long for it to catch sight of the three kids staring in horror at it.

"Run!" Hope shouted desperately and the three made for the door on the other side of the room. The troll blocked them and started to bring down it's fists like a giant, ugly gorilla. The trio skidded to a stop, whirled around and ran back out the first door, slamming it shut behind them.

"Any ideas?" Hope asked desperately, looking between Cassie and Hermes. They were supposed to be the smart ones, after all.

"I know a spell." Cassie said slowly.

"An anti-troll spell?" Hermes asked in disbelief.

"No, it's a spell my father said they used a lot in the war to cause a lot of damage. He taught me a lot of the spells he used." Cassie admitted.

"Like what?" Hope asked.

"Like nothing they would ever teach a first year." Cassie threw the door open, pointed her wand into the room. "Expulso!"

The effect was instantaneous. The bang was deafening as the ceiling fell in on the troll. Dust billowed out of the room and the shock wave nearly knocked the trio over. They coughed and waved the dust away. The troll was buried under the rubble, twitching slightly.

"That could've knocked down the whole school!" Hermes cried.

"It didn't." Cassie shot back, though she looked a little surprised herself.

"Snape probably heard that-." Hope began.

"The whole school probably heard that!" Hermes cried.

"Come on!" Hope ran, clambering over pieces of ceiling, to the other door. The other two followed her as fast as they could and they barreled into the next room.

There was nothing very frightening in there, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

"Snape's." Hope whispered. "What do we have to do?" They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

"Look!" Hermes seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Hope looked over his shoulder to read it:

 _Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

 _Two of us will help you, which ever you would find,_

 _One among us seven will let you move ahead, Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

 _Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

 _Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line._

 _Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,_

 _To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

 _First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

 _You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

 _Second, different are those who stand at either end, But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;_

 _Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

 _Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;_

 _Fourth, the second left and the second on the right Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

"Snape writes poetry?" Cassie asked with a sneer.

"It's a riddle." Hermes corrected.

"Why can't he just write it down normally, instead of making it rhyme?" Hope questioned. Hermes rolled his eyes and elected to ignore them.

"This isn't magic. It's logic. A puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."

"But so will we, won't we?" Hope wasn't feeling very logical; after all, she led the charge of four first years to go stop Snape and Voldemort.

"Of course not." Hermes scoffed. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple."

"How do we know which to drink?" Cassie asked.

"Give me a minute." Hermes read the paper several times. Then he walked up and down the line of bottles, muttering to himself and pointing at them. At last, he clapped his hands. "Got it. The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire toward the Stone."

"Go Ravenclaw." Cassie said in admiration. Hope just looked at the tiny bottle.

"There's only enough there for one of us." She said. The other two stared, seeing she was right; Snape had obviously drank some already. "Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" She asked.

Hermes pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.

"You two drink that. No, listen, get back and get Regina. Grab brooms from the flying key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy. Go straight to the owlery and send a message to Dumbledore. We need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really." Hope admitted nervously.

"But, Hope, what if You-Know-Who's with him?" Cassie demanded.

"Well, I was lucky once, wasn't I?" Hope pointed at her scar, barely visible beneath her hair. "I might get lucky again."

Hermes stared at her, looking as though he was ready to yell at her, but then suddenly dashed at Hope and threw his arms around her. Hope felt like a tiny child in his arms, but she awkwardly hugged him back.

"Hope, you're a great witch, you know."

"I'm not as good as you." Hope mumbled, very embarrassed, as he let go of her.

"Me!" Hermes scoffed. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things. Friendship and bravery and-." He looked like he was choking on a word he couldn't get out. "Hope, be careful!"

"I will." Hope promised, but felt almost as if she was lying. If she was being careful, she wouldn't be walking through that door to face someone so much more powerful than her.

"Please be careful." Cassie pleaded as she ran to hug Hope as well.

"Not sure that's possible..." Hope mumbled. Cassie squeezed her once more and pulled away, her eyes wide and shining with tears.

"Let's drink." Hermes told them shakily, reminding them they were pressed for time already. He took a long drink from the round bottle at the end and shuddered.

"It's not poison?" Hope asked anxiously.

"No, but it's like ice." He handed it over to Cassie, who took a swig as well. She shuddered just like Hermes had.

"Quick, go, before it wears off." Hope told them. They both hesitated but then turned and walked straight through the purple fire.

Hope took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bottle. She turned to face the black flames.

"Here I come." She said to no one in particular and she drained the little bottle in one gulp. It was indeed as though ice was flooding her body. She put the bottle down and walked forward; she braced herself, saw the black flames licking her body, but couldn't feel them. For a moment she could see nothing but dark fire. Then she was on the other side, in the last chamber.

There was already someone there. But it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.


	24. Through The Looking Glass

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

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It was Quirrell.

"You?!" Hope demanded. Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me." He said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter."

"But I thought... Snape-."

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

Hope didn't know what to think. How could it be Quirrell? But the evidence was staring her right in the face...

While Hope was distracted, Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Hope. She tired to struggle free, but ended up just fell backwards. She glared up at Quirrell and he smiled condescendingly at her.

"You're too nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."

"You let the troll in?"

"Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls. Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off. And not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly. Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror."

It was only then that Hope realized what was standing behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised. Somehow, she doubted Quirrell was seeing his mummy and daddy in that. She wondered if he had parents at all, or just grew on the side of old trees like a fungus.

"This mirror is the key to finding the Stone." Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this... but he's in London... I'll be far away by the time he gets back..." All Hope could think of doing was to keep Quirrell talking and stop him from concentrating on the mirror.

"I saw you and Snape in the forest-."

"Yes." Quirrell agreed idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. "He was on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me. As though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side..." Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared hungrily into it. "I see the Stone... I'm presenting it to my master... but where is it?"

Hope struggled against the ropes binding her, but they didn't give. She had to keep Quirrell from giving his whole attention to the mirror.

"But Snape always seemed to hate me so much."

"Oh, he does." Quirrell said casually. "Heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other."

"But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing. I thought Snape was threatening you..." For the first time, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell's face.

"Sometimes." He began. "I find it hard to follow my master's instructions. He is a great wizard and I am weak-."

"You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Hope asked. How could Voldemort have been so close without her knowing it?

"He is with me wherever I go. I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it... Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me... decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me..." Quirrell's voice trailed away.

Hope was remembering her trip to Diagon Alley. How could she have been so stupid? She'd seen Quirrell there that very day, in the Leaky Cauldron. Quirrell cursed under his breath, bringing Hope's attention back to the present.

"I don't understand... is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?"

Hope's mind was racing. _What I want more than anything else in the world at the moment_ , she thought, _is to find the Stone before Quirrell does. So if I look in the mirror, I should see myself finding it, which means I'll see where it's hidden! But how can I look without Quirrell realizing what I'm up to?_

She tried to edge to the left, to get in front of the glass without Quirrell noticing, but the ropes around her too tight. She could barely breathe, let alone move around. Quirrell ignored her futile attempts behind him. He was still talking to himself.

"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!" And to Hope's horror, a voice answered, and the voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself:

"Use the girl... Use the girl..." Quirrell rounded on Hope.

"Yes, Potter, come here." He clapped his hands once and the ropes binding Hope fell off.

Hope got slowly to her feet, trying to think. She had her wand, tucked into the pocket of her hoodie. But she wasn't more powerful than him. She couldn't even think of a spell in that moment. She tried to look around subtly to find a weapon. Not surprisingly, there wasn't exactly a broadsword just lying around. She would've settled for a butcher's knife, though...

"Come here." Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see." Hope walked towards the mirror. She had to lie. It was her only chance. And she thought she was a pretty good liar.

Quirrell moved close behind her. Hope breathed in the funny smell that seemed to come from Quirrell's turban. She closed her eyes, stepped in front of the mirror and opened them again. She saw her reflection, pale and scared-looking at first. But a moment later, the reflection smiled at her. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket. As it did so, Hope felt something heavy drop into her real pocket. Somehow, incredibly, she'd gotten the Stone.

"Well?" Quirrell demanded impatiently. "What do you see?"

"My parents." She lied easily enough. "My mother's beautiful. My father is handsome. I see pieces of myself in them. But it's just an image." She turned back to look back up at Quirrell. "It's not real. Because your 'master', Voldemort, he killed them. In cold blood. Because that's what he does!" Amazingly, she was calm. It was as if she'd been waiting for this moment her entire life. Every built up emotion she'd pushed down the past nine months came bubbling up to the surface, making her braver than she'd thought she could be.

"Let me speak to her... face-to-face..." The strange voice from nowhere was back.

"Master, you are not strong enough!"

"I have strength enough... for this..." Hope watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban. The turban fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot.

Hope screamed and backpedaled against the mirror. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Hope had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

"Hope Potter..." It whispered. Hope was trapped against the mirror and the terrible sight in front of her. She would've given her left arm for a nice gun right about then. Magic was great, but a shotgun would've been better for her at that point. "See what I have become? Mere shadow and vapor ... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own... Now... why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"

So he knew. Hope reached for her wand in her pocket.

"Don't be a fool." The face snarled. "Better save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents... They died begging me for mercy..."

"LIAR!" Hope screamed. Quirrell was walking backward at her, so that Voldemort could still see her. The evil face was now smiling. "How touching... I always value bravery... Yes, girl, your parents were brave... I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."

"You like bravery?" Hope asked, pretending to think about it.

"Yes..."

"How's this for bravery?" She snarled. She brought her leg up into a field-goal kick. Her foot sailed right in between Quirrell's legs and hit him in his manly special spot. He yelled and dropped to his knees.

Hope skirted past him, making for the door.

"Seize her! SEIZE HER!" Voldemort yelled and Hope felt Quirrell's hand wrap around her wrist, jerking her to a stop. The pain her head was blinding but it dimmed as she felt the hand release her. She scrambled backwards, looking to see what had happened. Hope saw Quirrell hunched in pain, looking at his fingers. They were blistering before his eyes.

"Master... I can't hold her... My hands."

"Then kill her, fool, and be done!" Voldemort screeched. Quirrell raised his wand to perform a deadly curse and everything seemed to slow down for Hope. He was going to kill her. She didn't want to die. There was only one other option: kill him. Kill the man serving Voldemort and maybe even Voldemort himself. For her parents, for herself, for Regina, lying unconscious two rooms back...

Hope lunged forward, grabbing Quirrell's wand hand. Her scar was burning hot with pain and she wanted to scream, but she got more cruel satisfaction from hearing Quirrell scream instead. She drove her elbow into Quirrell's stomach as hard as she could manage through the pain. He dropped his wand and she turned her attention to something else, grabbing him by the throat with both hands. She couldn't even see anymore, the scar was hurting her so badly. But she could still feel his throat underneath her fingers. She could hear Voldemort screaming at Quirrell and Quirrell screaming in pain. More screams joined the mix. Her own. Some screams in her head that she didn't even recognize.

Blinded with pain, eyes squeezed close, and nearly deaf from the screaming, she felt Quirrell crumble and slip from her grasp. Even with her eyes closed, she _felt_ the room spin beneath her feet and the last thing she was aware of was hitting the cold cement below...


	25. What Was Needed

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N Not much going on this chapter, but it's necessary.**

* * *

Hope was staring at the Mirror of Erised. Her parents were smiling back at her, beckoning her forward. They were starting to fade... No, no, no... She had to see them! She pressed forward and her arm slid through the glass like it was water. But she couldn't go through... Her friends were waiting for her...

Grief-stricken, she pulled her arm out and turned around... only to find herself staring into blood-red eyes.

Hope jerked awake with a gasp. Her head was swimming and she fell back down again... pillows? She looked around again. She was lying in a bed with white linen sheets and next to her was a table piled high with what looked like half a candy shop. Her glasses were buried underneath a packet of chocolate frogs and she yanked them out.

"Tokens from your friends and admirers." Hope turned her head as she put on her glasses. Albus Dumbledore was standing at the end of her bed with a soft smile. "What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows. I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a toilet seat. No doubt they thought it would amuse you. Madam Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic and confiscated it."

"How rude." Hope croaked.

"Yes, she's rather un-agreeable at times but completely irreplaceable." He smiled merrily.

"How long have I been here?"

"Three days. Mister Granger and Missuses Malfoy and Weasley will be most relieved you have come around. They have been extremely worried. There were talks of a riot if they weren't allowed in to see you soon."

"Sounds like them." Hope murmured. "Is Regina okay?"

"It was nothing Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix."

"The stone..." She murmured, trying to focus.

"Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. You did very well, I must say."

"You got Hermes's owl?"

"We must have crossed in midair. No sooner had I reached London than it became clear to me that the place I should be was the one I had just left. I arrived just in time to see you finish off Quirrell yourself."

"I killed a teacher." She mumbled; surely, if nothing else, _that_ was grounds for expulsion.

"We can make an exception that rule today." Dumbledore assured her and Hope smiled.

"You saw it?"

"I feared I might be too late. The effort involved nearly killed you. For one terrible moment there, I was afraid it had. As for the Stone, it has been destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Hope echoed. "But your friend, Nicolas Flamel-."

"Oh, you know about Nicolas?" Dumbledore asked, sounding quite delighted. "You did do the thing properly, didn't you? Well, Nicolas and I have had a little chat and agreed it's all for the best."

"But that means he and his wife will die, won't they?"

"They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die." Dumbledore smiled at the look of amazement on Hope's face. "To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all. The trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."

Hope lay there, lost for words. Dumbledore hummed a little and smiled at the ceiling.

"Sir?" Hope asked. "I've been thinking... sir. Even if the Stone's gone, Vol-. I mean, You-Know-Who-."

"Call him Voldemort, Hope. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."

"Yes, sir. Well, Voldemort's going to try other ways of coming back, isn't he? I mean, he hasn't gone, has he?" A very large part of Hope wanted to believe that she had killed Voldemort. But she had a terrible feeling she hadn't.

"No, Hope, he has not. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share... not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. He left Quirrell to die; he shows just as little mercy to his followers as his enemies. Nevertheless, Hope, while you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time... and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power." Hope nodded, but stopped quickly, because it made her head hurt. Then she said:

"Sir, there are some other things I'd like to know, if you can tell me... things I want to know the truth about..."

"The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie."

"Voldemort said he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. Why did he want to kill me _so badly_ in the first place?" Hope asked, feeling a sob working her way up into her throat. Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time.

"Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today. Not now. You will know, one day... put it from your mind for now, Hope. When you are older... I know you hate to hear this... when you are ready, you will know." Hope knew it would be no good to argue, though every fiber of her being wanted to.

"Why couldn't Quirrell touch me?" She asked instead.

"Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign... to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good." Dumbledore now became very interested in a bird out on the windowsill, which gave Hope time to dry her eyes on the sheet.

"And the invisibility cloak. Do you know who sent it to me?" She already had a feeling about that one.

"Ah... your father happened to leave it in my possession, and I thought you might like it." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Useful things... your father used it mainly for sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here."

"I think I would've liked him."

"I have no doubt."

"There's something else..."

"Fire away." Dumbledore invited.

"Quirrell said that Professor Snape hates me because he hated my father. Is that true?"

"Well, they did rather detest each other. Not unlike yourself and Ms. Parkinson. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive."

"What?"

"He saved his life."

"What?"

"Yes..." Dumbledore hummed dreamily. "Funny, the way people's minds work, isn't it? Professor Snape couldn't bear being in your father's debt... I do believe he worked as hard as he did to protect you, indirectly or not, this year because he felt that would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to hating your father's memory in peace..." Hope tried to understand this but it made her head pound, so she stopped.

"And sir, there's one more thing..."

"Just the one?"

"How did I get the Stone out of the mirror?"

"Ah, now, I'm glad you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and between you and me, that's saying something. You see, only one who wanted to find the Stone, find it, but not use it, would be able to get it, otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life. My brain surprises even me sometimes..."

"One last thing-."

"I doubt that, but go on."

"You knew." Hope told him. He looked at her with a completely blank express, waiting for her to clarify her statement. "You addressed the first letter to the house I was staying in when I shouldn't have been. You knew I was a runaway. You didn't tell Hagrid, but you knew. Why didn't you do anything?"

"That, I'm afraid, is something I will live to regret." He responded with a quiet sigh. "As long as I knew you were safe, I didn't bother to interfere."

"Because you needed me like this, didn't you? To stop Voldemort."

"Actually, Hope, I did not expect you to be like this at all. I wanted and expected a brave Gryffindor like your parents before you. You being a cunning Slytherin was something I was not prepared for." He admitted. "But I won't deny that you are brave." He added with a smile.

"But you did need me to be strong enough to stop Voldemort." She insisted.

"I did. Perhaps that is another reason I did not interfere. However, I am now."

"I'm not going back to the Dursley's!" Hope protested immediately. "I'll just run away again."

"No, no." He calmed her. "I thought perhaps you'd prefer to live in another place. It would be just you, but you would be safe. Of course, it would be better if you didn't mention that I am allowing you to live alone at eleven."

"Of course." She would agree to nearly anything at that point. Dumbledore handed her a piece of parchment. On it were directions to an address. She squinted at it, making sure she was reading it right. "Number twelve Grimmauld Place?"

"It might need a bit of work, but I assume you're up to the challenge of making it your own." Hope smiled and folded up the parchment, sticking it under her pillow for safe-keeping.

"Now, enough questions. I suggest you make a start on these sweets. Ah! Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans! I was unfortunate enough in my youth to come across a vomit flavored one, and since then I'm afraid I've rather lost my liking for them. But I think I'll be safe with a nice toffee, don't you?" Dumbledore smiled and popped the golden-brown bean into his mouth. Then he choked and said: "Alas! Ear wax!"

* * *

Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was a nice woman, but very strict.

"Just five minutes." Hope pleaded.

"Absolutely not."

"You let an old man come in and watch me sleep for who-knows-how-long." Hope told her dryly. Madam Pomfrey glared at her.

"Well, of course, that was the headmaster and quite different. You need rest."

"I am resting, look, lying down and everything. Oh, go on, Madam Pomfrey..." Hope put on her best puppy-dog-eyes.

"Oh, very well." She said. "But five minutes only."

She let Regina, Hermes and Cassie in. The three sprinted over and Regina jumped onto the bed next to Hope to hug her. Hope flinched, as she was still sore, so Regina released her with a quick apology. Cassie hugged her gently, Hermes gave her a big smile and they all settled down around her on the edges of the bed.

"Oh, Hope, we were sure you were going to-."

"Dumbledore was so worried-."

"The whole school's talking about it."

"You looked awful."

"Cassie, that's terrible to say."

"What really happened?" Regina demanded.

It was one of those rare occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumors. Hope told them everything: Quirrell; the mirror; the Stone; and Voldemort. Her friends were a very good audience; they gasped in all the right places and when Hope told them what was under Quirrell's turban, Cassie screamed out loud.

"So the Stone's gone?" Hermes asked finally.

"Flamel's just going to... die?" regina pressed.

"That's what I said, but Dumbledore thinks that... what was it? 'To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure'."

"I always said he was off his rocker." Regina murmured, looking quite impressed at how crazy her hero was.

"So what happened to you three?" Hope asked.

"Well, we got back all right, thanks to Hermes figuring out that riddle." Cassie explained. "We brought Regina around, that took a while because she was out like a rock from _one little_ head injury-." Regina slapped at her, laughing. "And we were running up to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the entrance hall. He already knew. He just said, 'Hope's gone after him, hasn't he?' and ran off to the third floor."

"D'you think he meant you to do it? Sending you your father's cloak and everything?" Regina asked.

"Well!" Hermes exploded. "If he did... I mean to say that's terrible... You could have been killed." He sputtered, looking as thought Dumbledore had personally insulted every family member he possessed and his cow.

"No, it isn't." Hope said thoughtfully. "I know he meant me to do. He told me so. But he's a funny man, Dumbledore. He seemed to know just what to do to make sure we saved the day."

"Yeah, Dumbledore's off his rocker, all right." Regina said proudly.

"I wouldn't trust him to watch my pet rock." Cassie agreed. "He'd probably put it in a magic mirror." Everyone had a good laugh at that.

Hope turned to the pile of candy boxes and began disputing them. There was nothing like eating candy to celebrate a victory.

"So, when were you going to tell us you're a runaway?" Cassie asked calmly, in a truly Slytherin manner. Everyone stared.

"What?" Regina asked, jaw hanging open.

"What do you mean?" Hermes demanded, looking between Cassie and Hope.

"How did you know?" Hope asked Cassie quietly.

"When Professor McGonagall said she was writing to all our parents to inform them of the 'incident', I reminded her that you're living with your aunt and uncle. She told me the truth. You're not living with anyone, you were living on the street!"

"What?" Hermes was turning red in the face. To Hope's right, Regina looked like she'd been slapped.

"You can come to my house for the summer-." Regina began.

"My parents surely will allow you to stay with us-." Cassie interrupted.

"My parents are Muggles, but you could stay with-." Hermes stammered.

"I've got a place." Hope cut them all off. She dug the note out of from under her pillow. "Dumbledore gave me directions to a place I can stay over the summer. I'll be okay." She assured them.

"Are you sure?" Hermes asked anxiously.

"We don't have much extra space, but you can stay in my room with me." Regina added.

"I'll be alright." Hope told them, trying to laugh off their concern. The truth was, she couldn't remember a time someone was so concerned about her. She wanted to change the subject before she did something stupid, like cry.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Cassie demanded, leaning against the foot-board of the bed and folding her arms across her chest. Hope didn't have an answer for that right away; she busied herself readjusting the sheet over her.

"I don't know... I just..."

"You thought we'd judge you." Cassie realized.

"The rich girl looking down on a homeless kid? Yeah, the thought had crossed my mind." Hope admitted bitterly.

"I'm not rich." Regina reminded her.

"I'm just a Muggle-born." Hermes added.

"And I'm your best friend." Cassie protested pointedly.

"I'm sorry." Hope murmured, barely audible. They were all silent for a moment, all staring at uninteresting things like they were the most interesting things in the world.

"Listen, you've got to be up for the end-of-year feast tomorrow." Regina finally changed the subject, leaning close to Hope. "The points are all in and Gryffindor won... Which I guess isn't great for you, a Slytherin. But the food'll be good."

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over.

"You've had nearly thirty minutes, now out!" She said firmly.

* * *

After a good night's sleep, Hope felt nearly back to normal.

"I want to go to the feast." She told Madam Pomfrey as she straightened her many candy boxes. "I can, can't I?"

"Professor Dumbledore says you are to be allowed to go." She said stiffily, as though in her opinion Professor Dumbledore didn't realize how risky feasts could be. "And you have another visitor."

"Who?"

Hagrid sidled through the door as Hope spoke. As usual when he was indoors, Hagrid looked too big to be allowed. He sat down next to Hope, the bed creaking under his weight. He took one look at her and burst into tears.

"It's... all... my... ruddy... fault!" He sobbed, his face in his hands. "I told the evil git how ter get past Fluffy! I told him! It was the only thing he didn't know, an' I told him! Yeh could've died! All fer a dragon egg! I'll never drink again! I should be chucked out an' made ter live as a Muggle!"

"Hagrid!" Hope protested, shocked to see Hagrid shaking with grief and remorse, great tears leaking down into his beard. "Hagrid, he'd have found out somehow, this is Voldemort we're talking about, he'd have found out even if you hadn't told him."

"Yeh could've died!" Hagrid sobbed. "An' don' say the name!"

"VOLDEMORT!" Hope yelled and Hagrid was so shocked, he stopped crying. "Hagrid, I've met him, I literally killed his host and I'm calling him by his name." She informed him. He didn't say anything, just sniffed and wiped at his eyes.

Hope sat up against the headboard of the bed and put her hand on Hagrid's arm.

"Please cheer up, Hagrid. My friends and saved the Stone, it's gone, he can't use it. Have a Chocolate Frog, I've got loads..." She offered. Hagrid wiped his nose on the back of his hand and said:

"That reminds me. I've got yeh a present."

"It's not a stoat sandwich, is it?" Hope asked anxiously and at last Hagrid gave a weak chuckle.

"Nah. Dumbledore gave me the day off yesterday ter fix it. 'Course, he shoulda sacked me instead... anyway, got yeh this..." It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Hope opened it curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at her from every page were her mother and father. "Sent owls off ter all yer parents' old school friends, askin' fer photos... knew yeh didn' have any... d'yeh like it?"

Hope couldn't speak, but Hagrid understood.


	26. Heroes of Their Time

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N And now we've reached the final chapter of first year. I hope you all enjoy. The chapter with the beginning of second year (or at least the summer between) will be posted soon. As always, please review and tell me what you think of the chapter, the story in general or anything else!**

* * *

Hope made her way down to the end-of-year feast alone that night. She had been held up by Madam Pomfrey's fussing about, insisting on giving her one last checkup, so the Great Hall was already full. It was decked out in the Gryffindor colors of gold and red to celebrate Gryffindor winning the house cup. A huge banner showing the Gryffindor lion covered the wall behind the High Table.

When Hope walked in, there was a hush as everyone stared. She rolled her eyes and slipped into a seat between next to Cassie.

"Who knew killing a teacher would cause me to be so popular." She joked. Cassie looked appalled, but then laughed.

Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts... Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, but first there are some last minute points dish out. First, to Ms. Regina Weasley..."

At the Gryffindor table, Regina went purple in the face; she looked like a radish with a bad sunburn. Her brothers turned in their seats to look at her in surprise and she sank down further in her seat in an attempt to hide from everyone's gazes.

"...For the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Gryffindor cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. Fred and George cheered the loudest, whistling, whooping and shouting her name at the top of their lungs. Percy could be heard telling the other prefects:

"My sister, you know! My baby sister! Got past McGonagall's giant chess set!"

At last there was silence again.

"Second, to Mr. Hermes Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Ravenclaw fifty points."

Hermes buried his face in his arms; his ears were red with embarrassment. Ravenclaw's up and down the table were cheering for him.

"Third, to Ms. Cassiopeia Malfoy... For thinking far beyond her years, I award Slytherin house fifty points."

For once, people were cheering the name 'Malfoy'. Cassie looked exactly as proud as Hope had expected. Or maybe more. After all, there was hardly a limit to Cassie's pride.

"Fourth, to Ms. Hope Potter..." The room went deadly quiet. "For pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Slytherin house fifty points."

Hope couldn't help but smile at that. Slytherin's cheered for her for once and Cassie hugged her.

"There are all kinds of courage." Dumbledore said, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Hufflepuff for Ms. Nadine Longbottom."

Nadine, who had never once won a point for her house, looked shocked. People cheered for her. At the Gryffindor table, Regina whistled for her.

"And I think tonight we'll make an exception regarding the house cup in honor of houses standing together to defend the school." He clapped his hands. In an instant, the the scarlet hanging turned into scarlet, green, yellow and blue hanging. The Gryffindor lion was joined by the Slytherin serpent, the Ravenclaw eagle and the Hufflepuff badger. Some people groaned at the sharing of the house cup, but most cheered at the change.

It was the best evening of Hope's life, better than Christmas or knocking out mountain trolls... She would never, ever forget that night.

* * *

Hope had almost forgotten that the exam results were still to come, but come they did. To their great surprise, both she and Regina passed with good marks. Hermes, of course, had the best grades of the first years. Cassie was right behind him, but Cassie felt it was better for her health if she didn't beat Hermes. Even Nadine scraped through, her good Herbology mark making up for her abysmal Potions one. They had hoped that Crabbe and Goyle, who were almost as stupid as they was mean, might be thrown out, but they had passed, too. It was a shame, but as Regina said, you couldn't have everything in life.

And suddenly, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed, Nadine's toad was found lurking in a corner of the toilets; notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays ("I always hope they'll forget to give us these." Fred Weasley said sadly). Hagrid was there to take them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake and they were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier and eating Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as they sped past Muggle towns. They pulling off their wizard robes and putting on jackets and coats. They were pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station.

It took quite a while for them all to get off the platform. A wizened old guard was up by the ticket barrier, letting them go through the gate in twos and threes so they didn't attract attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the Muggles. People jostled them as they moved forward toward the gateway back to the Muggle world. Some of them called:

"Bye, Hope!"

"See you, Potter!"

"Still famous." Regina rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Even as a Slytherin?"

"Even as a Slytherin." Regina agreed.

The four of them passed through the gateway together.

"There she is, Mom, there she is, look!" It was Gavin Weasley, Regina's younger brother but he wasn't pointing at Regina. "Hope Potter! Look, Mom!"

"Be quiet, Gavin, and it's rude to point." Mrs. Weasley smiled down at them. "Busy year?"

"Very." They all said in near comical unison.

"Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley." Hope added.

"Oh, it was nothing, dear."

Fred, George and Percy made it over to them. They said their goodbyes and the Weasley's departed. Hermes spotted his parents, very nervous looking Muggles huddled together in a corner, said goodbye to the girls and rushed over to them. Cassie spotted her own family, a group of pale blonde people, her younger brother dressed in a crisp suit that probably cost more than spending a month in the Leaky Cauldron inn. Cassie hugged Hope one last time and hurried over. Hope pretended not to notice Cassie's father giving Hope a look of distaste over Cassie's head. She also pretended not to notice how he didn't greet his daughter at all, but instead turned and walked swiftly away as the rest of his family followed behind.

She pushed her trolley out of the station herself, then unloaded her trunk, shoulder bag and Crookshanks' carrier. Pulling her trunk along with her free hand, she started off towards Number 12 Grimmauld Place.


	27. A Grim Old Place

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N So it's been a while since I've updated. Sorry about that. I haven't been writing very much lately, but I think I'm getting back into the groove for this story. I had a couple chapters pre-written that I had, for some reason, never put up even though they were finished and edited. Anyway, I hope to be working a lot more on this story. Sorry for the long wait and I hope that any previous readers will forgive the wait and keep reading? As always, please review, even if it's short or just a comment about something a small as a single line you liked. Reviews definitely help me stay focused on a story and I love getting feedback.**

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Dumbledore was definitely an old loon. There was no number twelve Grimmauld Place. Hope found herself staring at number eleven on one side and number thirteen on the other. He had written directions to where it should've been, but not actual directions on how to get into the non-existent number twelve. Hope reasoned it could've been like the platform and she had to walk through something. She also reasoned that she did not want to take a running start and collide with the shared brick side of numbers eleven and thirteen.

Hope looked down at Crookshanks. She'd let him out of his carrier and he was now casually lounging on the sunny sidewalk by her feet.

"Any ideas?" She asked her oh-so-intelligent cat. He did nothing but roll over onto his back. "Thanks. You're a great help." She told him sarcastically.

She turned her attention back to her predicament. She couldn't stand out there on the side-walk all summer, so she had to find a way into number twelve. _Number twelve Grimmauld Place,_ she recited in her head, _number twelve Grimmauld place... Where are you?_

No sooner than she had finished her thought, a battered door appeared out of nowhere on the brick side of numbers eleven and thirteen. Dirty walls and windows appeared next. It was like an entirely new house was inflating in between the existing ones, pushing them out of the way. She looked down at her one and only companion, her cat, in shock. He was too busy trying to catch a butterfly to notice the house popping out of nowhere.

The house seemed to be done growing out of thin air, so Hope crept forward, lugging her things behind her. Crookshanks noticed her moving, so he gave up his pursuit of the insect and trotted obediently after her up the steps. The door was painted black, but the paint itself was shabby and scratched. The silver knocker was in the form of a twisted serpent and something told Hope that Slytherins lived there, or at least had at one point. There was no keyhole or letterbox. Hope tried the doorknob, but it was locked tight.

The note that said students were not allowed to use magic outside of school was stuffed in her pocket. She knew it was there, but it was an emergency, she reasoned. She dug her wand out of her bag to try the Alohomora charm Hermes was so fond of. She only had to tap the doorknob with her wand; the words didn't even make it past her lips before she heard the door unlocking. She kept her wand out anyway as the door creaked open.

Hope stepped over the threshold into the almost total darkness of the hall. She could smell damp, dust, and a sweetish, rotting smell. No one had been in the house for many years, she was sure. Shudders ran involuntarily through her. _Yes,_ she thought, _Dumbledore is definitely a crazy one..._

She set her things down as quietly as possible, still feeling as though she should be exercising caution, alone or not. Digging out her flashlight from her bag, she flicked it on with one hand and kept her wand held tightly in the other. Crookshanks was growling, low but audible, down at her feet. She felt slightly safer with Crookshanks there; he had taken on a big, first-year Slytherin for her nearly a year ago after all.

Hope shined the flashlight around. She was in a hallway, or what used to be a hallway. There was peeling wallpaper and the carpet was thin and worn. A cobwebby chandelier glimmered overhead and age-blackened portraits hung crooked on the walls. Both the chandelier and the candelabra on a rickety table nearby were shaped like serpents. Hope had never been in one of the tourist-attraction haunted-houses, but she had a feeling this would've made a lot of money had it been just that.

Something scuttled beneath the floorboard and she jumped. Crookshanks hissed and ran forward, following the sound.

"Crookshanks!" Her cat didn't reappear, so Hope hurried after him. She passed moth-eaten curtains and an umbrella stand that looked like it had been made out of a severed mountain troll leg. She had no idea why Dumbledore would want her there. She would've taken an old, _normal_ back alley any day.

Crookshanks had raced down a flight of stairs and Hope took after him, wishing furiously she'd just left him in his carrier. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she paused. She didn't hear Crookshanks hissing anymore. She shined her flashlight around, panting for breath. She was in a large, cavernous room with rough stone walls. Large pots and pans hung from the ceiling on rickety hooks that made Hope nervous as she stood under them.

"Crookshanks!" She hissed again, not daring to raise her voice any higher. _The house is empty,_ she tried to reason with herself, _no one has been here for years._ But she got the horrible feeling she was wrong about that...

Suddenly, snarling and hiss filled the air. Hope ran towards the sound, heart pounding. What on earth had Crookshanks found to fight with? At the end of the long room, Hope found her answer, though she would've preferred not to.

Crookshanks had just been thrown to the floor by a small, ugly creature. Hope studied him in slack-jawed shock as she moved forward to collect Crookshanks in her arms, fumbling with her wand and flashlight. Except for the filthy rag tied around his middle like a loincloth, the creature was entirely naked. The creature had large, bat-like ears with white hair sticking out of them and bulging grey eyes the size of tennis balls. It was probably only two feet tall; Crookshanks probably could've taken it if Hope let the fight continue.

"Kreacher doesn't like cats." The creature muttered with the voice of a bullfrog. "Nasty little beasts..."

"I'm sorry... Who are you?" Hope asked, barely biting back the question she really wanted to ask: _what on earth on you, you ugly_ _thing?_ She figured that would be impolite, given that she'd practically just broken into his house and all...

"Kreacher. The house-elf of the house of Black." Then, looking towards the floor, he said in a very audible whisper: "Is it true? Is it Hope Potter? Kreacher can see the scar, it must be true, that's that girl who stopped the Dark Lord, Kreacher wonders how she did it-."

"I did it twice, actually." Hope put in. Kreacher glared at her.

"Kreacher wasn't talking to you."

"Sorry...?" Hope was very confused about what she should be doing in her current situation. "Who else lives here?"

"Just Kreacher." He spat. "Master Black is gone. The brother is an ungrateful swine, locked up forever and ever..." He sang.

"Okay..." Hope began slowly, debating how to handle the creature. She shifted Crookshanks in her arms, ready to sic him on Kreacher and run for her life. "Professor Dumbledore sent me here."

"Yes, Kreacher knows." The house-elf agreed, then muttered very audibly. "Mistress doesn't like Dumbledore. Oh, Mistress what would she say if she saw Kreacher now..."

"Who's your mistress?"

"Mistress Black is the master of the house."

"Is she still here?"

"Dead."

"Then... She's not the master of the house anymore."

"Mistress Black will always be the master of the house."

"But she's dead."

"Kreacher knows." He snarled at her.

"Okay..." Hope said again. "Professor Dumbledore sent me here." She repeated, trying to turn the conversation around.

"Kreacher knows." Very audibly, he added: "Kreacher hates it."

"Well, Dumbledore said that I could stay here-."

"Kreacher knows." Then, again: "Kreacher hates it."

"Well, I don't care!" Hope blew up. "Professor Dumbledore said that I could stay here over the summer so that's what I'm going to do." Honestly, she was starting to doubt her own words. Running for the hills seemed like her best option.

"Kreacher must serve her." The house-elf said mournfully. "It is written." He handed her a letter he procured from she didn't want to know where. She took it by the corner, shook it out and read it. It was some sort of will, leaving all of 'Sirius Black's possessions to James and Lily Potter in the event of his death... and James and Lily had left everything to Hope.

"Sirius Black is dead?"

"Filthy swine is locked up forever and ever..." Kreacher sang gleefully.

"So... I get all his stuff even if he's not?"

"He's never getting out..." Kreacher continued in his sing-song tone.

"Okay..." Hope said for the third time, feeling exhausted by her conversation with the house-elf.

She glanced around the room. She had a vault in Gringotts and now a house and house-elf, though she would've given him away without hesitation. She wondered what Sirius Black had done, but decided against asking Kreacher. It was clear to her already that she shouldn't trust in him too much, whether it was regarding the truth or turning her back to him in a place that probably stilled contained knives. She turned back to Kreacher.

"I don't suppose you could turn on some lights?"

"Kreacher will do whatever Mistress Potter requests." He bowed to her, then added loudly: "Filthy little blood traitor. Mistress Black will never forgive me."

"Excuse me?" Hope asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Kreacher said nothing."

"Right... I'm going to look around." Hope told him. Kreacher bowed again and scuttled off slowly, still muttering about blood traitors and Mistress Black.

Hope ventured back up into the hallway. Letting Crookshanks down, she shined her flashlight around again until she saw the stairs leading upwards. She crept up the rickety staircase, keeping an eye-out for any more unwanted creatures, mind still going over Kreacher. Dumbledore could've at least warned her about him...

The second floor had a lot of unused, very dusty and dirty bedrooms. The third floor was nearly identical. The floor after that had only two bedrooms. One door had the name 'Sirius' on it. Curiosity over taking her, she pushed it open.

The room was nothing like the rest of the dull bedrooms. While it was still as dusty as the rest of them, it had more personality in it. The walls were covered with pictures of bikini-clad women and motorcycles. Some pictures caught Hope's eye immediately for one reason only: they were of her parents. There was a long-haired, grey-eyed boy with them that Hope could only assume was Sirius Black. Hope tried to yank down the nearest picture of them, but it was stuck to the wall with something even stronger than tape or glue. Hope grimaced, but left it be. She'd try to get them off later. She glanced around the room again, taking in the Gryffindor color scheme. Everything else about the house said Slytherin's... Had Sirius Black been the only Gryffindor in the family, like she was the only Slytherin?

Hope debated staying in the room as opposed to other dull, creepy ones on the lower floors. But she wasn't sure she could take staring at the bikini-clad women, so she left the room again, vowing to return to get the pictures.

When she returned downstairs, the lights were on all around the house. Kreacher was no where to be seen, but that didn't bother Hope beyond wondering if he was collecting knives. She shut herself up in a bedroom on the second floor and began her attempt to make it habitable again.

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 **A/N Another big change for the books, as you can see. I have never actually written Kreacher in any fanfiction and it's been a while since I read the books he was in so if he's out of character, I apologize.**


	28. Isolation

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

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Hope had arrived at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place on June twenty-first. Term began for her second year at Hogwarts on September first. That left her seventy-two days to deal with Kreacher and the state of her new home. She wasn't sure she was going to survive that long, or at least remain sane for that long.

She had slept on a moth-eaten couch the first night, but after a day and a half of scrubbing, tossing out trash and moving around furniture, she had a suitable bedroom to stay in. She put her own possessions in the room and forbade Kreacher from touching anything in her room, as she had seen him stealing old things and sneaking them off to who-knows-where.

Kreacher, she learned quickly, as an acquired taste. Since she couldn't straight up kill him, she decided to kill him with kindness instead. He seemed to become a bit friendlier towards her as time went on, though 'friendly' for Kreacher was still distant and full of audible mutterings.

Eventually, she got brave enough to ask him what had happened to Sirius Black. After some pestering for straight answers, she learned that Sirius Black had murdered thirteen muggles and a fellow wizard. She stopped asking questions about Sirius Black after that.

Crookshanks adjusted easily. There were plenty of places for him to explore and shiny things for him to knock around. He and Kreacher kept their snarling fights to a mere one or two a week, to Hope's relief.

The whole house was odd and magical, but not in the funny way that Hogwarts was. There were mounted elf heads on the wall that Hope made Kreacher take down. She didn't know where they ended up, but she just hoped she'd never see them again. There were rooms of junk she had yet to sort through, but everything she found seemed odd. There was a musical box that emitted a faintly sinister, tinkling tune when wound and Hope found herself becoming curiously weak and sleepy until she had the sense to slam the lid shut. There was a heavy locket that she couldn't open and a number of odd boxes on wizard genealogy and the importance of pure-bloods.

One whole room was just a library on the Dark Arts. Hope had flipped through a few books but they were mostly on the history of pure-bloods and she gave up on the entire room fairly quickly. Although, there were a few spell books she'd flipped through. There were too many spells to remember and she figured she'd stick with the ones she'd learn during her following years at Hogwarts. However, she did write down a few things that would no doubt be useful. Apparently, there was a spell to make a duck shoot out of a caster's wand whenever they tried a spell. That one she would be using more often she cared to predict. Other than that, she left the library alone.

Each room took at least two days to clean out; Hope was throwing out more than she was keeping. She gave Kreacher whatever he wanted on the premise that she never saw the weird things again. He thanked her and made her tea each time she gave him some piece of rubbish. It took her two weeks before she trusted him enough to actually drink it.

There was a garage-like room attached to one of the first-floor rooms. There were many out-of-date brooms stored there, along with more broom maintenance supplies than she knew existed. Then there was the motorcycle. It must've been moved there more recently, Hope reasoned, as it wasn't nearly as dusty as the rest of it. When she asked Kreacher about it, all she got was a comment about 'nasty old Sirius Black'. She assumed it had once belonged to him and had been moved there after his imprisonment. The genealogy books stated his parents had lived past his imprisonment; she wondered if there was anything else they'd had that had belonged to the murderer. She didn't ask Kreacher about that, though.

It took her less than two days after discovering the motorcycle for curiosity to overtake her and compel her to take it out for a spin. The fact that it also flew was something she learned the surprising way. How to land it was something she learned the hard, bruising way. After that she decided to leave it alone for a while and refocus on the interior of the house while she nursed her mild injuries.

In the front hallway, there was a portrait of who Kreacher referred to lovingly as Mistress Black. Hope would've been fine leaving it up, except it was hideous and screamed, shouted curses and shrieked whenever something was dropped in the house or Crookshanks tugged on the curtains covering it with his claws. Hope had tried to just pull it off the wall, but it was stuck there. Finally, she took a pocket-knife she'd found in Sirius Black's room and cut off the wall-paper it was magically stuck to. It left a huge hole in the wallpaper, but it was better than leaving it up. She put it up in the attic face-down, flipped an old table onto the back of it and then piled up other objects onto it just in case. She didn't trust the portrait, as odd as that sounded. Kreacher wouldn't talk to her for weeks after she'd removed it and any time he offered her tea with a big smile and mutterings around her being a terrible person, she dumped it down the nearest drain.

Despite his oddness, Kreacher did help her a lot. He kept the kitchen fully stocked with food and drinks so she was never hungry. She did, however, make most of her own food. Only when she knew she had pleased Kreacher did she trust him to make her anything. She still missed the feasts in the Great Hall, though.

Kreacher also told her about the Floo System. Step in the magical fireplace with the special powder, say where you want to go, drop the powder, you're teleported there. Hope didn't trust Kreacher enough to try it until she walked down to Diagon Alley one day and found a book on Step By Step Floo Instructions for Muggle-born's. It was handy to know, but she still wasn't brave enough to use it until she'd read the entire book front to back.

Overall, she kept busy, was well-fed and had a roof over her head. There were still problems, but she tried to deal with them. However, there was one problem she couldn't just ignore: her friends were ignoring her. She hadn't received any letters for them since June and, as late July rolled around, she was growing more and more concerned and angry about it. She'd written them, of course. A couple days a week, she had ordered Kreacher and Crookshanks to get along and walked down to the Leaky Cauldron to get into Diagon Alley. She had taken letters to the owlery there and sent them to her friends. She never got a response back.

She debated reasons for it in her head. Maybe they had meant to write and forgotten. That sounded a bit like Regina, but not Hermes or Cassie. Maybe they didn't want to be friends anymore. But that didn't sound like any of them. They would've at least told her, right? Hope wished they'd just tell her what was going on.

On the morning of July thirty-first, her twelfth birthday, she woke up to Kreacher staring at her. She screamed and jerked up, snatching up her glasses. Kreacher may have gotten nicer, but he certainly wasn't any prettier. She caught her breath and looked back down at him.

"What?" She snapped. She had forbidden Kreacher from touching her things, but she hadn't told him not to come in. She would have to add that to the many things she had to tell Kreacher. She'd had learned what it took to free a house-elf and had tried to present him with an old t-shirt to free him just to get him out of her hair, but he'd started having a mental breakdown so she just told him it was still hers and she needed it washed instead. That seemed to cure him and she hadn't tried anything of the sort since. She was officially stuck with him.

"It is Mistress's birthday." She didn't ask how he knew that; she'd learned long ago everyone seemed to know more about her than she did herself.

Kreacher presented her with a cupcake on a plate. She ran through what she had done for him in her head, remembered she'd let him keep a family ring with the Black family crest on it the previous day and decided it was safe. She took the plate.

"Thanks, Kreacher." He bowed and wandered off.

Her twelfth birthday turned out to be a bust. No cards or presents from her friends. No one but Crookshanks and Kreacher to keep her company. It was too hot to try and walk all the way to the Leaky Cauldron, so she was stuck in the house for the day. It was one of the most miserable birthday's she'd ever had and that was saying something.

More than anything, she wished she was at Hogwarts with her friends once more. She missed vain, loyal Cassie Malfoy. She missed bookish, moral Hermes Granger. She missed funny, impulsive Regina Weasley. She even missed the pranksters, Fred and George Weasley, and sweet, clumsy Nadine Longbottom. But no one seemed to be missing her.

She spent the day cleaning old silverware with Kreacher instead of celebrating anything. After she took the longest shower known to man, she stumbled into her bedroom in her pajamas to try and sleep the disappointment of the day off. The trouble was: there was already a house-elf on her bed. And it wasn't Kreacher.

The creature was bouncing on her bed, having a fun time by the looks of it. When the elf saw her, he scrambled off the bed and bowed so low his nose touched the carpet. It wasn't as ugly as Kreacher. Granted, that didn't make it pretty either.

"Hello?" She told it hesitantly.

"Hope Potter!" The creature cried in a high-pitched voice that was the opposite of Kreacher's. "So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, ma'am... Such an honor it is..."

"Who are you?" Hope demanded.

"Dobby, ma'am. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf."

"Great... Why are you here?"

"Dobby has come to tell you, m'am... it is difficult, ma'am... Dobby wonders where to begin..."

"Sit down." Hope offered, motioning to her bed. Instantly, she knew she'd made a mistake. Dobby burst into noisy tears.

"S-sit down!" He wailed. "Never... never ever..."

The noise brought the sounds of thumping on the stairs. Hope knew Crookshanks and Kreacher were coming up. To protect the sobbing house-elf, Hope whirled to slam the door shut, but both the cat and the old house-elf managed to barrel inside before she could shut it completely. Kreacher stood in his loin-cloth, glaring and holding a heavy frying pan. Crookshanks hissed and snaked around Hope's ankles. Kreacher stared at Dobby for a split second, screamed 'INTRUDER!' and started to swing his frying pan at Dobby.

"Kreacher, no! Stop!" Hope ordered. Kreacher obeyed, but didn't look happy about it.

The whole time, Dobby was still sobbing.

"Dobby has never been asked to sit down by a wizard... like an equal..."

"You must not have met many decent wizards." Hope scoffed. Dobby shook his head. Then, without warning, he leaped towards the desk and started slamming his head into the side of it.

"Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!"

"Stop it, stop it!" Hope cried as Kreacher cackled and hugged his frying pan happily. She lunged, grabbed Dobby by the back of his pillowcase and yanked him back from the desk.

"Dobby had to punish himself, ma'am." The elf explained. He had gone slightly cross-eyed. "Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, ma'am." _Funny,_ Hope thought, _I've heard Kreacher insult Sirius Black a hundred times over. And me. And everyone except for his mistress._

"Does your family know you're here?" Hope questioned.

"Oh, no, ma'am, no... Dobby will have to punish himself most grievously for coming to see you, ma'am. Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven door for this. If they ever knew, ma'am..."

"Then why are you here?" She decided to ignore the whole 'shut his ears in the oven door' part. She wasn't the therapist he so obviously needed.

"Dobby has come to protect Hope Potter, to warn her, even if he does have to shut his ears in the oven door later... Hope Potter must not go back to Hogwarts."

"Well, that's not happening." Hope informed him. "I have to go back. Hogwarts is my home!"

"No, no, no." Dobby squeaked, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped. "Hope Potter must stay where she is safe. She is too great, too good, to lose. If Hope Potter goes back to Hogwarts, she will be in mortal danger."

"What is it this time? We destroyed the fancy rock. Is there a magical rose that will kill a prince on his twenty-first birthday?" Hope scoffed.

"There is a plot, Hope Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year." Dobby whispered, suddenly trembling all over. "Dobby has known it for months, ma'am. Hope Potter must not put herself in peril. She is too important, ma'am!"

"What terrible things? Who's plotting them?" Hope demanded.

Dobby made a funny choking noise. Kreacher immediately offered the frying pan with a wide smile and Dobby began to hit himself with it. Kreacher cackled again as Hope had to wrestle the frying pan out of his tiny hands. She thrust it back to Kreacher with a death look.

"Okay, okay. You can't tell me. I understand. But why are you warning me?" A sudden, unpleasant thought struck her. "Hang on. This hasn't got anything to do with Vol... Sorry. With You-Know-Who, has it? You could just shake your head or nod." Slowly, Dobby shook his head.

"Not... not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, ma'am." But Dobby's eyes were wide and he seemed to be trying to give Hope a hint. Hope, however, was completely lost.

"He hasn't got a brother, has he?" Dobby shook his head, his eyes wider than ever. "Well then, I can't think who else would have a chance of making horrible things happen at Hogwarts. I mean, there's Dumbledore, for one thing. You know who Dumbledore is, don't you?" Dobby bowed his head.

"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength. But, ma'am." Dobby's voice dropped to an urgent whisper. "There are powers Dumbledore doesn't... powers no decent wizard..."

Before Hope could stop him, he had grabbed a heavy lamp and began beating himself with it letting out ear-splitting yelps. Hope lunged again and wrestled him away from it. Kreacher was still cackling and Crookshanks had fled the room again. Hope wished she could do the same.

"Look, Dobby, I don't care that there's some plot. I'll fix it. But I have to go back there. My friends are there." She tried to make the house-elf understand.

"Friends who don't even write to Hope Potter?" Dobby responded slyly. Hope was opening her mouth to defend them when she realized something. Her green eyes narrowed dangerously at the creature in front of her.

"How did you know that?" She demanded. Dobby shuffled his feet nervously.

"Hope Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for the best-."

"Have you been stopping my letters?" Hope snarled. How could this house-elf stop her letters? How could he make her summer miserable? How could he say it was for the best?

"Dobby has them here, ma'am." Stepping nimbly out of Hope's reach, he pulled a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase he was wearing. Hope could make out Hermes's neat writing, Regina's untidy scrawl, Cassie's curvy cursive and even a scribble that looked as though it was from Hagrid.

Dobby blinked anxiously up at Hope.

"Hope Potter mustn't be angry... Dobby hoped if Hope Potter thought her friends had forgotten her. Hope Potter might not want to go back to school, ma'am..."

Hope wasn't listening. She made a desperate grab for the letters, but Dobby jumped out of reach and she hit the floor instead.

"Hope Potter will have them, ma'am, if she gives Dobby her word that she will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, ma'am, this is a danger you must not face! Say you won't go back, ma'am!"

"No." Hope told him angrily. "Give me my friends' letters!"

"Then Hope Potter leaves Dobby no choice." The elf said sadly. Before Hope could grab him, he had darted out of the room. Hope looked over at Kreacher, who still holding the frying pan like a baseball bat.

"Kreacher. Get him." The old house-elf and the pre-teen threw themselves out the door and sprinted after Dobby. Down the stairs... into the front hallway... down the next set of stairs... Crookshanks had joined the chase by the time Hope caught up to Dobby in the kitchen. He had the letters next to the roaring fireplace. Hope skidded to a stop, Kreacher and Crookshanks stalling beside her.

"Give Dobby her word she will not return to Hogwarts!" Dobby repeated. Hope looked at the letters, dangerously close to the flame.

"Give Kreacher the letters." Kreacher threatened, giving the frying pan a practice swing and glaring at the younger house-elf. Crookshanks hissed. Hope took that to mean something along the lines of 'drop them or I'll claw your eyes out'.

"Give them to me!" Hope commanded, holding out her hand.

"Hope Potter leaves Dobby no choice." Dobby repeated and Hope knew he was going to do something stupid. Before Hope could move, he dropped the letters into the flames. Hope lunged for him but he disappeared with a sharp pop. Her forehead connected with the stone and she fell back onto the floor, nursing an instant headache.

Kreacher and Crookshanks looked down at her.

"Mistress needs ice." Kreacher told her. Then, very audibly, he added: "Mistress is very stupid."

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 **A/N I remember writing this chapter probably months ago and I loved writing it then. I hope it was as enjoyable to read as it was to write.**


	29. Wrong Turn

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

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Hope had come a long way in a year. The first time she went to Diagon Alley, she had to walk there. She had no idea what to do or even what she needed for school. But, when she got her letter with her list of school supplies in August, she was more prepared.

Dobby must've given up on stealing her letters, because she was able to get letters to her friends finally. She didn't tell them what had happened; that was a story to tell in person. Through their etters, Regina and Hermes agreed to meet her Diagon Alley on a pre-set date. Cassie said she'd do her best to convince her family to do the same.

On that day, Hope got dressed in her usual Muggle clothes and decided it was too hot to walk the several miles to the Leaky Cauldron. She was going to try Floo Powder for the first time. She'd read the instruction book front to back at least twice. She was fairly confident she could make it work as long as ignored Kreacher's 'advice'.

Still, stepping into the empty fireplace seemed a bit odd. She clutched the fistful of floo powder in her hand and nervously dropped it to the floor of the fireplace. She immediately coughed as the dust came back up into her face and choked out 'Diagon Alley'. Green flames that didn't burn engulfed her immediately.

It felt as though she were being sucked down a giant drain. She seemed to be spinning very fast and not in a fun way. The roaring in her ears was deafening. She tried to keep her eyes open but the whirl of green flames made her feel sick. Something hard knocked her elbow and she tucked it in tightly, still spinning and spinning... Then it felt as though cold hands were slapping her face. Squinting through her glasses she saw a blurred stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond. Then she fell, face forward, onto cold stone and felt the bridge of her glasses snap.

Dizzy and bruised, covered in soot, she got gingerly to her feet, holding her broken glasses up to her eyes. She was quite alone, but where she was, she had no idea. All she could tell was that she was standing in the stone fireplace of what looked like a large, dimly lit wizard's shop. But nothing in the shop was ever likely to be on a Hogwarts school list. A glass case nearby held a withered hand on a cushion, a bloodstained pack of cards, and a staring glass eye. Evil-looking masks stared down from the walls, an assortment of human bones lay upon the counter and rusty, spiked instruments hung from the ceiling.

Even worse, the dark, narrow street Hope could see through the dusty shop window was definitely not Diagon Alley. The sooner she got out of here, the better. Nose still stinging where it had hit the hearth, Hope made her way swiftly and silently toward the door, but before she'd got halfway toward it, she saw the outlines of people about to come in.

Cursing to herself for trying out transportation via fireplace in the first place, she dived for cover. Her cover turned out to be a large, black cabinet. She shot inside and pulled the doors closed, leaving just a tiny crack to see through.

Seconds later, a bell clanged and a family of four stepped into the room. She recognized them immediately, but decided to stay hidden. It was the Malfoy's. Cassiopeia Malfoy was there, looking nervous, and wearing one of her many fancy dresses. Her younger brother, Aries, was wearing a suit like the last time Hope had seen him. He was already a head taller than Cassie herself.

Cassie's parents didn't look nervous at all. Her mother was tall and blonde like the rest of her family. She would've been pretty, if she didn't turn up her nose and scowl at everything she saw in the shop. Cassie's father had longer hair than she did and wore a suit nearly identical to Aries's.

Mr. Malfoy crossed the shop, looking lazily at the items on display and rang the bell on the counter for service before turning back to his family.

"Touch nothing." He ordered. Aries Malfoy, who had reached for the glass eye, said angrily:

"I thought you were going to buy me a present."

"I said I would buy you a racing broom." His father corrected, drumming his fingers on the counter.

"What's the good of that if I'm not on the House team? They never let first year's play." Aries complained.

"I'm going to try out this year." Cassie put in.

"Yes, so you've said." Mr. Malfoy reminded her in a bored tone. "Ah, Mr. Borgin."

A stooping man had appeared behind the counter, smoothing his greasy hair back from his face.

"Mr. Malfoy, what a pleasure to see you again." Mr. Borgin had a voice as oily as his hair. "Delighted. And the Missus and young Masters Malfoy, too. Charmed. How may I be of assistance? I must show you, just in today, and very reasonably priced-."

"I'm not buying today, Mr. Borgin, but selling." Mr. Malfoy interrupted.

"Selling?" The smile faded slightly from Mr. Borgin's face.

"You have heard, of course, that the Ministry is conducting more raids." Mr. Malfoy went on, taking a roll of parchment from his inside pocket and unraveling it for Mr. Borgin to read. "I have a few, ah, items at home that might embarrass me, if the Ministry were to call..."

Mr. Borgin fixed a pair of pince-nez to his nose and looked down the list.

"The Ministry wouldn't presume to trouble you, sir, surely?" Mr. Malfoy's lip curled.

"I have not been visited yet. The name Malfoy still commands a certain respect, yet the Ministry grows ever more meddlesome. There are rumors about a new Muggle Protection Act. No doubt that flea-bitten, Muggle-loving fool Arthur Weasley is behind it-." Hope felt a hot surge of anger at Mr. Malfoy insulted Regina's father. Peering at Cassie, she saw her friend ducking her head to hide her expression, whatever it had been. "-And as you see, certain of these poisons might make it appear-."

"I understand, sir, of course. Let me see..."

"Can I have that?" Ares interrupted, pointing at the withered hand on its cushion. Mrs. Malfoy shot him a withering look; Cassie just looked up to see what he was pointing at.

"Ah, the Hand of Glory!" Mr. Borgin said, abandoning Mr. Malfoy's list and scurrying over to Aries and Cassie. "Insert a candle and it gives light only to the holder! Best friend of thieves and plunderers! Your children have fine taste, sir."

"I hope my children will amount to more than a thief or a plunderer, Borgin." Mr. Malfoy responded coldly and Mr. Borgin said quickly:

"No offense, sir, no offense meant-."

"Though if Cassiopeia's grades don't pick up that may indeed be all she is fit for." He added coldly. Hope restrained herself from jumping out and decking him.

"I'm second in my year!" Cassie told him quickly. Hope was surprised she wasn't angry at being berated but instead looked eager to prove herself.

"I would have thought you'd be ashamed that a boy of no wizard family beat you in every exam." Mr. Malfoy snapped and Cassie took to ducking her head and falling silent again.

"It's the same all over. Wizard blood is counting for less everywhere-." Mr. Borgin began.

"Not with me." Mr. Malfoy cut him off, his long nostrils flaring.

"No, sir, nor with me, sir." Mr. Borgin said quickly, with a deep bow.

"In that case, perhaps we can return to my list. I am in something of a hurry, Borgin, I have important business elsewhere today." They started to haggle.

Hope watched nervously as Aries drew nearer and nearer to her hiding place, examining the objects for sale. Aries paused to examine a long coil of hangman's rope and to read, smirking, the card propped on a magnificent necklace of opals: _Caution: Do Not Touch. Cursed. Has Claimed the Lives of Nineteen Muggle Owners to Date_

Cassie was looking around too, from her stationary place beside her mother. She spotted the cabinet, squinted and her jaw dropped. Hope frantically shook her head and Cassie seemed to get the message. She called her brother over to look at an evil-looking mask on the other side of the shop. Aries scampered over, leaving Hope's hiding place safe. She silently thanked her friend.

"Done." Mr. Malfoy said at the counter. "Come." He added to his family.

They headed for the door to the shop, with Mr. Malfoy pausing just before they left to turn back and say:

"Good day to you, Mr. Borgin. I'll expect you at the manor tomorrow to pick up the goods."

The moment the door had closed, Mr. Borgin dropped his oily manner.

"Good day yourself, Mister Malfoy, and if the stories are true, you haven't sold me half of what's hidden in your manor..." Muttering darkly under his breath, Mr. Borgin disappeared into a back room once more.

Hope waited for a minute in case he came back, then, as quietly as she could, she slipped out of the cabinet, past the glass cases,and out of the shop door. Clutching her broken glasses to her face, Hope stared around. She had emerged into a dingy alleyway that seemed to be made up entirely of shops devoted to the Dark Arts. The one she'd just left, Borgin and Burkes, looked like the largest, but opposite was a nasty window display of shrunken heads and, two doors down, a large cage was alive with gigantic black spiders. Two shabby-looking wizards were watching him from the shadow of a doorway, muttering to each other.

Trying to regain her confidence, Hope set off. An old wooden street sign hanging over a shop selling poisonous candles told Hope that she was in Knockturn Alley. This didn't help, as Hope had never heard of such a place. She supposed that she hadn't spoken clearly enough through her mouthful of powder. Either way, she wasn't going to be trying Floo Powder again. Walking was much safer. At least you always knew where you were going to end up...

"Not lost are you, my dear?" A voice asked in her ear, making her jump and whirl around. An aged witch had managed to sneak up on her. She was holding a tray of what looked horribly like whole human fingernails. She leered at Hope, showing mossy teeth. Hope backpedaled on instinct.

"I'm fine." She told the witch with as much confidence as she could muster. As long as you say something with confidence, there's a good chance people will believe whatever was said.

"HOPE! What d'yeh think yer doin' down there?" Hope's heart leapt. So did the witch; a load of fingernails cascaded down over her feet and she cursed. The massive form of Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, came striding toward them, beetle-black eyes flashing over his great bristling beard.

"Hagrid!" Hagrid seized Hope by the scruff of the neck and pulled her away from the witch, knocking the tray right out of her hands. Her shrieks followed them all the way along the twisting alleyway out into bright sunlight.

Hope saw a familiar, snow-white marble building in the distance: Gringotts Bank. Hagrid had steered her right into Diagon Alley.

"Yer a mess!" Hagrid told her gruffly, brushing soot off Hope so forcefully he nearly knocked her into a barrel of dragon dung outside an apothecary. "Skulkin' around Knockturn Alley, I dunno. Dodgy place, Hope. Don' want no one ter see yeh down there-."

"I realized that." Hope replied, ducking as Hagrid made to brush her off again. "I got lost. Floo powder gone wrong. Anyway, were you doing down there?"

"I was lookin' fer a Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent. They're ruinin' the school cabbages. Yer not on yer own?" He asked suspiciously.

"I'm supposed to be meeting up with my friends." She dodged the question easily. Whether or not Dumbledore had told Hagrid about her living on her own, she didn't want to risk Hagrid's lecture about it. Still, she felt a flood of joy that he cared so much about her. Her was just about the only adult that did anymore.

Hagrid set off with her to find them, still muttering about how she shouldn't have been in Knockturn Alley at all.

"How come it took yeh so long to write back ter me?" He finally asked as they made their way down the winding streets that were finally familiar to Hope. She was jogging to keep up with him, stilling holding her glasses against her face.

Hope explained all about Dobby. Hagrid shook his head.

"Dumbledore wouldn't let there be a plot to kill yeh! Yer gonna be perfectly safe!" He protested. Hope nodded in agreement. Even if she wasn't, she sure as anything wasn't going to stay in Grimmauld Place instead of going back to her real home.

"Hope, Hope, over here!" Hope turned and saw Hermes Granger sprinting down the steps of Gringotts towards them, his bushy brown hair windswept and wilder than usual. He paused for breath as he got to them, but that only last a second or two. "What happened to your glasses? Hello, Hagrid. Oh, it's wonderful to see you two again!" He gushed.

"It's good to see you." Hope told him. She had to look up at him still; he hadn't stopped growing over the summer and towered over her even more than before. Hope was sure the only one of their group that could rival his height was Regina.

As if thinking about her summoned her, the entire Weasley family came bustling down the street. Regina spotted Hope and Hermes first and a grin erupted on her face. She came sprinting over and, naturally, the other Weasley's turned to see what was going on and started over as well.

Regina tackled Hope with a bone-crushing hug. She and Hermes started towards each other like they were going to do the same, then paused, held out their hands for a handshake. That died too, so they waved at each other from the grand distance of two feet instead.

"Awkward." Hope put in loudly. They both glared at her, but then started laughing.

"What happened to you, dear?" Mrs. Weasley demanded of Hope as the rest of the family caught up. She looked at the soot covering Hope's clothing in distaste and worry. Mr. Weasley took her glasses, magically repaired them and handed them back to her.

"Thank you. I went a gate too far when traveling by floo powder. Came out in Knockturn Alley." Hope explained.

"Excellent!" Fred and George told her with wide grins.

"We've never been allowed in." Regina whispered conspiratorially.

"I should ruddy well think not." Hagrid told her with a disapproving glare. "See yer at Hogwarts!" He told the rest of them. After shaking Hope's whole arm in farewell, he strode away, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the packed street.

Hope turned to her two friends.

"You'll never believe what happened to me this summer."


	30. Disgrace

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

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Hope and the Weasley's went down to their vaults in Gringotts together. Hope felt her heart sink as she saw the inside of the Weasley vault. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon. Mrs. Weasley felt right into the corners before sweeping the whole lot into her bag. Hope felt even worse when they reached her vault. She tried to block the contents from view as she hastily shoved handfuls of coins into a leather bag.

Back outside on the marble steps, they all separated. Percy muttered vaguely about needing a new quill. Fred and George had spotted their friend from Hogwarts, Lee Jordan. Mrs. Weasley and Gavin were going to a secondhand robe shop. Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking the Mr. and Mrs. Granger off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink to talk about 'muggle things'.

"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks." Mrs. Weasley told them all, setting off with Gavin. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" She shouted at the twins' retreating backs.

Hope, Hermes and Regina strode off together. The bag of gold, silver and bronze coins in Hope's pocket were demanding to be spent, so she bought them all large strawberry and peanut-butter ice-creams. Just as the ice creams were getting scooped into cones, Cassie Malfoy came running up to them as fast as she could in her heels.

"I only just got away from mother and father. I was hoping to find you." She panted. Hope subtly paid for a fourth ice-cream and the four cones were handed out. Cassie looked like she was going to protest Hope buying her something, but Hope cut her off.

"Thanks for the save in that shop."

"What were you doing there anyway?" Cassie demanded as they walked off, licking their ice cream.

Hope explained about the floo powder mishap and then went further back to explain about Dobby and the mail incident. When Hope mentioned Dobby's name, Cassie froze. They all paused and looked back at her.

"Dobby? That's _our_ house-elf. Mother and father's, I mean." She stammered.

"You think that your dad is planning something?"

"The first year Aries goes? His perfect little prince?" Cassie scoffed, as if the idea was ridiculous. But then her expression faltered. "I... I don't know." She admitted quietly.

"Well, your parents were some of You-Know-Who's followers." Regina pointed out.

"They were cursed! They didn't mean to." Cassie jumped to their defense. Regina just looked at her.

"Were they?" She pressed dryly. Sensing Cassie was about to have a very early mid-life crisis if she didn't change the subject, Hope decided it was the perfect time to point out the wondrous things in the windows of shops. That seemed to lighten the mood, or at the very least, distract everyone from the former conversation.

Regina gazed longingly at a full set of Chudley Cannon robes in the windows of Quality Quidditch Supplies until Hermes dragged them off to buy ink and parchment next door. In Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, they met Fred, George and Lee Jordan, who were stocking up on Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks. In a tiny junk shop full of broken wands, lopsided brass scales and old cloaks covered in potion stains they found Percy, deeply immersed in a small and deeply boring book called _Prefects Who Gained Power_.

"A study of Hogwarts prefects and their later careers." Regina read aloud off the back cover. "That sounds fascinating..."

"Go away." Percy snapped.

"Course, he's very ambitious, Percy, he's got it all planned out. He wants to be Minister of Magic." Regina told the others in an undertone as they left Percy to it.

"What's wrong with that?" Cassie demanded.

"He never stops talking about it."

"So?" Cassie pressed. Regina rolled her eyes.

"You try living with him all the time. You'll get annoyed too."

An hour later, they headed for Flourish and Blotts. They were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached it, they saw to their surprise a large crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. The reason for this was proclaimed by a large banner stretched across the upper windows:

 _GILDEROY LOCKHART will be signing copies of his autobiography MAGICAL ME today 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m._

"We can actually meet him! He's written practically our whole book list for this year. Besides, he's fascinating!" Cassie squealed.

"Have you see him before? I have. Not in person, I mean, but mum has pictures." Regina added in a rush.

"Who's Gilderoy Lockhart?" Hope asked. Her two girl friends turned to stare at her, slack-jawed. Hermes just sighed.

"He hardly knows anything! Have you read his books?" He asked Cassie and Regina.

"Yes."

"All of them."

"Well..." Hermes stammered, obviously having expected a different answer from them. "He's not very accurate."

"Oh, how would you know?" Cassie asked, crossing her arms. "You've only been in our world for, what, a year?"

"I still read actual books!"

"His books are 'actual books'! Honestly, Hermes, you just don't like that he knows more than you." Regina snapped.

"He doesn't! He makes it all up! You two just like him because he's handsome!" Hermes shot back. Cassie and Regina looked at each other, stammered out something that sounded like 'bugger off' and turned to make their way into the shop.

"So he's an author?" Hope asked, feeling as though her original question hadn't been directly answered yet.

"In the loosest definition of the word." Hermes mumbled back.

They squeezed inside the shop after their friends. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart must've been. They both grabbed a copy of _The Stand Book of Spells Grade 2_ and sneaked up the line where the Weasley's and Mr. and Mrs. Granger were waiting. Regina and Cassie had already gotten there; they were both practically vibrating with excitement.

"Oh, there you are, good." Mrs. Weasley greeted them absentmindedly. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute..."

Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes. His pointed wizard's hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair. Hope had to admit something to herself: he was good looking. He was very good looking...

A short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.

"Out of the way, there." He snarled at Hermes, moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet-."

"He's newsworthy?" Hermes asked in disbelief and disgust.

Gilderoy Lockhart heard him. He looked up. He saw Hermes and then he saw Hope. He stared. Then he leaped to his feet and positively shouted:

"It can't be Hope Potter?"

The crowd parted like the red sea, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Hope's arm, and pulled her bodily to the front. The crowd burst into loud applause as Lockhart shook her hand for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke over the Weasleys' and Grangers'.

"Nice big smile, Hope. Together, you and I are worth the front page." When he finally let go of Hope's hand, Hope could hardly feel her fingers. She tried to slip off back towards her friends, but Lockhart threw an arm around her shoulders and clamped her tightly to his side. She resisted the urge to jab her elbow into his rib-cage to make him let her go. "Ladies and gentlemen! What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time. When young Hope here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, she only wanted to buy my autobiography, which I shall be happy to present to her now free of charge, she had no idea that she would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" The crowd cheered and clapped and Hope found herself being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. _Yes, he's cute,_ she decided, _but he might just be a worse teacher than Quirrell._ And, considering Quirrell had had Voldemort sticking out of the back of his head, that was saying something...

Staggering slightly under their weight, she managed to make her way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where Gavin was standing next to his new cauldron.

"You have these." Hope told the younger boy, tipping the books into his cauldron as Cassie, Hermes and Regina hurried over to join them. "I'll buy my own-."

"Well, well, well... So these are your 'best friends'." It was Mr. Malfoy. He stood behind them, staring at the friends with a look of disgust. "A girl whose family can't afford their own school books, a hero always on the front page and a mudblood."

Immediately, Hope knew that he had said something awful. Regina leaped forward, held back only by Hermes himself, who looked ready to bolt and hide away somewhere. Cassie's jaw dropped at her own father's words, eyes growing wide. Gavin tried to get past Hope at Mr. Malfoy, but, at that moment, Mr. Weasley came over and gripped Gavin's shoulder tightly to prevent him from doing so. Judging from the angry look on his face, he had heard what had been said.

"Arthur Weasley." He greeted him tersely.

"Lucius." Mr. Weasley's voice was cold.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear. All those raids... I hope they're paying you overtime?" He reached into Gavin's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. "Obviously not. Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?" Mr. Weasley flushed dark red.

"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy." He put a hand on Hermes' shoulder. Hermes had finally released Regina, who looked ready to lunge again anyway. Instead, Hermes had his arms folded tightly, avoiding eye-contact with Mr. Malfoy. Hope still didn't know why the word 'mudblood' had gained such a reaction, but she was quite ready to leap into the fray if a fight started over it.

"Clearly." Mr. Malfoy agreed, his pale eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were watching apprehensively from a corner. "The company you keep, Weasley... and I thought your family could sink no lower-."

There was a thud of metal as Gavin's cauldron went flying; Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Mr. Malfoy, knocking him backward into a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads; there was a yell of 'Get him, Dad!' from Fred or George.

"No, Arthur, no!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked. The crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over.

"Gentlemen, please, please!" The assistant cried frantically. Then, loudest of all:

"Break it up, there, gents, break it up-." Hagrid was wading toward them through the sea of books. In an instant he had pulled Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy apart. Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and Mr. Malfoy had been hit in the eye by an Encyclopedia of Toadstools. He was still holding Gavin's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at him, his eyes glittering with malice.

"Here, boy. Take your book. It's the best your father can give you." Pulling himself out of Hagrid's grip he beckoned to Cassie and then swept from the shop. Cassie paused, stepped forward as if to follow, but then set her jaw and kept herself beside Hermes. Mr. Malfoy didn't even pause to see if she was following or not.

"Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur." Hagrid said, almost lifting Mr. Weasley off his feet as he straightened his robes. "Rotten ter the core, that family, everyone knows that. There's only one of Malfoy's worth listenin' ter." Hagrid shot a smile at Cassie, who gave him a shaky smile back. "Come on now. Let's get outta here."

The assistant looked as though he wanted to stop them from leaving, but he barely came up to Hagrid's waist and seemed to think better of it. They hurried up the street, the Grangers shaking with fright and Mrs. Weasley beside herself with fury.

"A fine example to set for your children... brawling in public... what Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought-."

"He was pleased." Fred put in cheerfully. "Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into his report. Said it was all publicity."

"What's a... you know." Hope changed the course of her sentence at the looks she got.

"It's a really nasty name for someone without magical parents. It means 'dirty blood'. It's one of the worst things you can call a Muggle-born." Mr. Weasley explained breathlessly.

"Oh..."

It was a subdued group that headed back to the Leaky Cauldron. Hope said goodbye to the rest of them. Cassie sat by the Floo Powder fireplace to wait for her parents. Hope hugged her goodbye, a silent thank you for not being like her horrible family. The rest of the Malfoy's almost made her own supposed family, the Dursley's, look nice.

Hope ended up walking the several miles back to Grimmauld Place. It was much safer than Floo Powder, she'd decided.


	31. A Plan Worthy of James Potter

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

The rest of Hope's summer vacation seemed more miserable than the start. True, she was able to communicate with her friends again. But being with them in person had reminded her of what she as really missing: face to face human contact. She suffered in silence through the rest of the vacation, but couldn't hide her glee as she began packing the night before she left for the start of term.

"Will you be alright here alone?" Hope questioned Kreacher as she looked around the kitchen for one of her books. It was getting late; she needed to get up to bed and get some sleep. But her excitement kept her running around instead.

"Kreacher will be fine." He replied. He ducked his head and said loudly: "Kreacher wants the blood traitor out of Mistress's house."

Hope rolled her eyes, grabbed her book from a nearby chair and walked out again. She would be lying if she said she would miss Kreacher. He was definitely more friendly than he'd been at the start of them living together, but she was still fairly certain he was going senile in his old age. She was looking forward to a house-elf-free dorm to share with Cassie once more.

Later that night, as she curled up in bed with Crookshanks, she thought more about Dobby's warning. Was there really a plot against Hogwarts? It wouldn't surprise her. Would it will endanger her to go back to Hogwarts? Most definitely. Did she care? Not at all. With that thought, she rolled over and fell asleep.

* * *

She woke up late. Very late. Late enough that she was scrambling to get ready. Kreacher gave her some pancakes and she shoveled those into her mouth as she frantically got dressed and packed last minute things. Within ten minutes, she was ready. But she knew she didn't have time to run to the station. It would take a few hours to walk there. Even running the whole way wouldn't get her there in time. It just wasn't possible. But if being a Slytherin had taught her anything, it was that there was always another way...

"Kreacher. I'm taking the motorcycle to Kings Cross! Come and get it in an hour, okay?" She called. She heard a grumpy affirmative from the house-elf and she started on her plan.

She brought her things down to the garage-like room with the motorcycle. Cramming her things into the side-car, making sure Crookshanks in his carrier wasn't crushed, she gingerly mounted the machine. She'd taken it out once, but she'd nearly crashed it and killed herself. But there was no time to be cautious about it if she wanted to get to Hogwarts. She revved it up and rolled it out of the garage slowly. She took it slow down the drive-way, but then revved it again and kicked it into gear. She brought it up into the sky and steered it towards the station.

The landing twenty minutes later was a bit rough, but she and her cat were both still alive. She called that a success. She grabbed her things and raced into the station. The clock told her she had five minutes before the train left.

It seemed the Weasley's were running late as well, because she nearly collided with the twins rounding a corner. She joined them with breathless greetings and the group continued on their frantic quest to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

Percy Weasley ran through the entrance, then Mr. Weasley, then the twins and then Mrs. Weasley took Gavin through with her. Regina and Hope waited just a second to be sure the way was clear before barreling towards the wall together. Unlike with Floo Powder or a flying motorcycle, Hope was confident about running through the wall. Being confident was a nice feeling. Naturally, it didn't work that time. Hope and Regina's trolleys hit the wall as though it were actually a wall; Regina's trunk fell off the trolley with an echoing thump and Crookshanks' carrier bounced on the shiny floor and rolled as much as a semi-circularly shaped cage could. He yowled the entire time and muggles around them whirled around to see what had happened. Holding her ribs where they'd slammed into the handle of the trolley, Hope scrambled after him. She grabbed the cage and apologized as he hissed at her.

"What in blazes d'you think you're doing?" A nearby guard yelled.

"So sorry. We lost control of the trolley." She put on her best apologetic innocent face. He hesitated, but left them be.

Hope ran back over to Regina, who was getting to her feet, looking dazed.

"Why can't we get through?" Hope hissed to her.

"I dunno." Regina looked wildly around. A dozen curious people were still watching them. "We're going to miss the train. I don't understand why the gateway's sealed itself..."

Hope looked up at the giant clock with a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. Ten seconds... nine seconds... She glanced around at the people still watching and tried to subtly lean against the wall, pushing against it with her shoulder. Regina joined her and they frantically subtly pushed against it to no avail. Three seconds... two seconds... one second...

"It's gone. The train's left." Regina sounded stunned. Hope knew then and there that none of her family had ever missed the train before. Even she had no back-up plan. "What if mum and dad get back through?"

"They'll be fine." Hope assured her absentmindedly. Regina pressed her ear against the cold stone.

"Can't hear a thing." She reported miserably. "What're we going to do? I don't know how long it'll take Mum and Dad to get back to us."

They looked around. People were still watching them, mainly because of Crookshanks' continuing yowling. Hope wanted to crawl back into her dark room at Grimmauld Place. She'd just go home and wait for someone to notice she was missing...

Hope slapped Regina's arm to get her attention.

"I came here on a flying motorcycle. We can fly to Hogwarts." Hope whispered to her. Regina's eyes widened.

"C'mon. Let's hurry and we'll be able to follow the Hogwarts Express." She agreed.

They wheeled their trolleys around and hurried back out to the parking lot. Somehow, they managed to stuff their trunks into the side-car together. Crookshanks carrier got securely squeezed in between the trunks and the back of the seat. Hope and Regina clambered on and Hope started it up once more. Regina was fidgeting behind her.

"Have you ever flown this before today?"

"Once."

"How'd it go?"

"Terrible. Tell me if anyone is watching." Hope instructed. Regina glanced around them, keeping a firm grip on Hope's waist as she craned around. The street was bustling with early afternoon activity and the parking lot was full of cars, but no one was looking at them.

"We're good."

"Hang on." Hope warned her. Regina's arms tightened around Hope.

The motorcycle rolled forward lazily, slowly picking up speed. The girls cast one last look around them and then Hope jerked it up into the air. The ground and the dirty buildings on either side fell away, dropping out of sight as the car rose. In seconds, the whole of London lay, smoky and glittering, below them.

"Whoo!" Regina yelled as they flew up into the clouds. "Our car flies, but it's not like this."

"You have a flying car?" Hope asked over the wind whistling in their ears and Crookshanks yowling his complaints about the whole situation.

"Yeah, but you said you had the motorcycle. Figured you knew how to drive it better than I would the car." Regina explained. "We need to see the train to know what direction to go in." She added as an afterthought.

Hope steered the motorcycle downwards, below the clouds once again. Regina twisted around behind her, trying to spot the train.

"There!" Regina pointed ahead of Hope. The Hogwarts Express was streaking along below them like a scarlet snake.

"We'll check it's direction every now and then." Hope told her. "Hold on." She brought them back up into the clouds. She didn't think Muggles would react well to see two twelve-year-olds on a flying motorcycle.

It was a different world up in the sky. The wheels of the motorcycle skimmed the sea of fluffy cloud, the sky a bright, endless blue under the blinding white sun. Anything seemed possible. Hope wished, somehow, they could've brought Hermes and Cassie along. Although, Hermes probably would've been yelling at them the whole time about the danger, so maybe it was better it was just the two of them. Crookshanks was being loud enough for Hope's taste.

Hope let go of the handlebars. She got her knees up on the seat and then slowly rose to her feet, balanced on the old leather. Regina held her ankles. Hope straightened up and threw her arms out on either side of her. The wind rushed past her, threatening to knock her over. It was an amazing feeling. She let out a yell of joy and laughed.

The motorcycle started to drift downward, so Hope sat back down and grabbed control of it again. Behind her, Regina was shakily standing up with her hands on Hope's shoulders. Regina had a similar reaction of joy and laughter, but then she almost fell off due to the wind and she threw herself back down, gripping onto Hope again.

"This is better than traveling by train!" Regina said in Hope's ear.

"Now all we have to worry about is airplanes." The two girls laughed at that and didn't stop for a long time.

Hope imagined the looks on their friends' faces when they gracefully landed on the grass at Hogwarts just seconds after the train. They were going to gain even more popularity than they had last year when Hope had kicked Voldemort in the balls.

* * *

"Your collar is sticking up-." Cassie began, reaching to adjust her younger brother's shirt.

"I'm perfectly fine without your help." Aries protested, straightening his shoulders and trying to make himself look taller.

"Alright." Cassie gave up, lowering her hands slowly.

"I think I'll go look for some friends. I assume you'll be with your... _friends_?" He questioned. Cassie shot him a look at his tone.

"I will. And if you don't lose that tone with me, brother, I'll smack you in front of your new friends." She threatened. Since when could her baby brother at so above her? He had used to write her during her last year. He had used to actively seek her companionship. But their father seemed to have turned him completely against her. Gone were the days of sibling love, at least from Aries.

"Father says your friends-."

"Father says a lot of things." She grounded her teeth together. Why couldn't her father just be glad she had friends? After eleven years of being isolated in Malfoy Manor, she had made three very nice friends. Couldn't he just be happy for her and forget his prejudice? But her father was rarely happy, just sometimes less angry.

"Cassie!" The blonde turned at the familiar voice and spotted Hermes hurrying down the train corridor to get to her.

"Hermes, hello." She greeted him, but her smile faded as she caught sight of his concerned expression.

"Have you seen Hope or Regina?" He asked, a bit of breath.

"No. I thought they were with you. I was with-." She turned to motion to her brother, but Aries had already taken off while she'd been distracted. She let her hand fall and frowned; so much for a nice day with her brother...

"I haven't seen them and with those two..." Hermes trailed off.

"They could be getting beaten up in the baggage car for all we know." Cassie finished his thought, chewing on her bottom lip. "Let's search for them. I hope they haven't gotten into any trouble without us..."


	32. It's All Fun and Games Until

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

As Hope, Regina and Crookshanks flew in varying degrees of contentedness, the sky began to darken. Star blossomed in the blackness and, if it weren't for Hope's growing tiredness, she would've thought it was a pretty sight.

"It's can't be much further." Hope muttered, mostly to herself. She was thinking about her dormitory down in the dungeons, which was far nicer than anyone made it sound. She was thinking of her four-poster bed and warm covers and soft mattress...

"Hope!" Regina poked her in the ribs, hard. Hope hadn't realized she'd begun to drift off. She tightened her grip on the handlebars and sat up straighter.

"Sorry."

"We must be nearly there." Regina added. Thinking the same, Hope brought them down for another check. They squinted through the darkness for a landmark they knew.

"There!" Hope took one hand off the handlebars to point straight ahead. Silhouetted on the dark horizon, high on the cliff over the lake, stood the many turrets and towers of Hogwarts castle. A happy jolt went through Hope; she was nearly home!

Hope steered them towards the trees surrounding the castle to find a place to park; she didn't intend on riding the motorcycle right into the Great Hall. Although, it wasn't the worst idea... She shook the thought out of her head and continued on her course. No need to make an even bigger scene than they were sure to already...

"Mind that tree!" Regina shouted, snapping Hope out of her thoughts. Hope saw they were headed for a gigantic tree and immediately swerved to avoid it. The motorcycle seemed to skid on the air as it turned, not quickly enough. As if it had a mind of it's own, a branch shot out from the tree and swung at them. The girls ducked their heads down and the branch snapped over their with an audible _crack_ in the air.

Hope steered the motorcycle to the ground, where it landed harder than she'd intended. Keeping her head down until she was sure she was out of range of the demented, sentient tree, she didn't even see where she was going.

"Mind _that_ tree too!" Regina yelled and Hope's head jerked up to see they were heading straight towards another, hopefully not sentient, tree. She braked and the motorcycle obeyed her command instantly. Their speed went from seventy miles per hour to zero in less than a second. The girls flew over the handlebars as if gravity no longer existed. But, alas, it did and they found themselves on the ground again just as quickly.

Hope let out a groan as she pushed herself up on her elbows. Her glasses were off her face and she was half certain her skin was too. She felt around blindly until she found her glasses in the grass. She pushed them onto her face and was mildly relived to see they weren't broken. Turning her head, she saw Regina in the grass not too far away.

"Regina?" She called, her voice coming out in a moan.

"I think I broke my butt bone." Regina complained, sitting up and feeling her backside. She pulled her wand out of her back pocket and gasped. Her wand had snapped nearly in two, hanging on by a few splinters.

Hope felt around for her own wand and located it stuffed down in her boot. It was still intact; she wished she could say the same about herself. She predicted she'd be nursing bruises for the next several days. Pushing herself to her feet, she paused to pat Regina awkwardly on the head in some form of comfort before moving to check on Crookshanks. Her beloved cat was hissing with anger, but seemed unharmed.

"We have to hide the motorcycle." Hope told Regina. Her friend nodded glumly and got to her feet. She stuffed her broken wand back into her pocket. "It's collapsible now. So much easier to store." Hope tried to cheer her up. Regina just shot her a look and Hope gave up, ducking her head and pretending to focus on her motorcycle instead.

Together, they began to wheel it into the Forbidden Forest. It was a good a place to hide a flying motorcycle as any...

* * *

The sight of the familiar, majestic castle and the carriages that pulled themselves was almost enough to distract Hermes and Cassie from the thought of their missing friends. Almost.

"What if something happened to them?" Hermes hissed in Cassie's ear as they waited for another carriage to pull up for them. She tried to act calm, but stress was eating away at her.

"I'm sure they're fine." She insisted, telling herself to believe it. Another carriage arrived and Hermes jumped up into the back. Offering his hand, he helped Cassie up as well.

"You're right... you're right..." Hermes agreed, though his leg bouncing nervously. Nadine Longbottom climbed into their carriage, holding Trevor the toad in one hand.

"Right about what?" Nadine asked, looking over at Cassie.

"Have you seen Hope or Regina?" Hermes asked instead of answering. Nadine frowned and shook her head, eyes wide with anxiety. Everyone, even Nadine in Hufflepuff, knew that Hope and Regina disappearing meant trouble.

"Do you hear that?" Cassie suddenly asked. The trio looked up, following the sounds of low rumbling, and saw a flying motorcycle overhead. It quickly disappeared from view but the trio continued to stare up at the sky in shock.

"Was that...?" Hermes trailed off. They already knew the answer. Only Hope and Regina would be crazy enough to be on a flying motorcycle. As much as they were relieved to know where their friends were, neither Cassie nor Hermes were eager to get into trouble before their second year even began.

"Whatever is happening... It's their problem." Cassie spoke up after a moment. Even Nadine nodded in agreement and they settled back as their carriage began to roll up the hill.

* * *

Hope had pictured a more heroic return to Hogwarts. After they'd hide the motorcycle in the Forbidden Forest, much further in that Regina wanted to go but Hope had insisted, they had started towards the castle. Holding their pet cages in one hand and lugging their trunks along with the other, they dragged themselves up the grassy slope towards the giant, oak doors. Cold, stiff and bruised, neither of them were in such a great mood anymore.

"I think the feast's already started." Regina panted, dropping her trunk on the front steps. Scabbers was squeaking loudly as she deposited him down as well; he never liked being around Crookshanks. Regina stumbled over to a window and peered inside. "Hey, Hope, come look at this. It's the Sorting."

Hope put her own things down next to Regina's and quickly limped over to peer into the Great Hall as well. They were like little orphans in a Dickens' novel, peering in from the cold at some grand spectacle.

Innumerable candles were hovering in midair over four long, crowded tables, making the golden plates and goblets sparkle. Overhead, the bewitched ceiling, which always mirrored the sky outside, sparkled with stars. Through the forest of pointed black Hogwarts hats, Hope saw a long line of scared-looking first years filing into the Hall. Gavin Weasley was among them, easily visible with his trademark Weasley hair. Hope spotted Aries Malfoy as well, who looked as confident as members of his family always did.

A very small, mousy-haired boy had been called forward to place the hat on his head. Hope's eyes wandered past him to where Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, sat watching the Sorting from the staff table, his long silver beard and half-moon glasses shining brightly in the candlelight. Several seats along, Hope saw Gilderoy Lockhart, dressed in robes of aquamarine. She poked Regina and pointed at him.

"He's here!" Regina squealed; Hope had almost forgotten about her crush on the man. Hope could admit that he was cute, but his personality killed it.

At the end of the table was Hagrid, huge and hairy, drinking deeply from his goblet, with an empty chair beside him.

"Hang on..." Hope muttered to Regina. "There's an empty chair at the staff table. Where's Snape?"

"Maybe he's ill!" Regina said hopefully.

"Maybe he's gotten fired." Hope added thoughtfully. It's not like anyone liked him at school anyway, including the other teachers.

"Maybe he quit and wandered off into the forest..." Regina mused.

"Maybe he did and was promptly eaten." Hope giggled.

"Maybe he's waiting to hear why you two didn't arrive on the school train." Heart in her throat, Hope turned around. There, his black robes rippling in a cold breeze, stood Professor Snape. Like the previous year, he was thin with sallow skin, a hooked nose, and greasy, shoulder-length black hair, and at that moment, he was smiling in a way that told Hope she and Regina were in very deep trouble. "Follow me."

Not daring to even look at each other, the girls followed Snape up the steps into the vast, echoing entrance hall, which was lit with flaming torches. A delicious smell of food was wafting from the Great Hall, but Snape led them away from the warmth and light, down a narrow stone staircase that led into the dungeons.

"In!" Snape ordered, opening a door halfway down the cold passageway.

No matter how much trouble Hope had gotten in to her first year, she'd never been in Snape's office. She realized quickly she hadn't missed anything good. The office was cold, not warm like the dormitories further down the passageway. The shadowy walls were lined with shelves of large glass jars, in which floated all manner of revolting things Hope didn't really want to know the name of at the moment. The fireplace was dark and empty.

Snape closed the door and turned to look at them.

"So." He murmured softly. "The train isn't good enough for the famous Hope Potter and her faithful sidekick, Weasley. Wanted to arrive with a bang, did we, girls?"

"No, sir, it was the barrier at King's Cross, it-."

"Silence! What have you done with the motorcycle?" It wasn't the first time Hope had been under the impression Snape could read minds, but it was just as annoying and unnerving. But she understood when Snape unrolled the day's issue of the _Evening Prophet_. "You were _seen_!" He hissed angrily, shoving it in their faces.

The headline was easy to read, even without it being an inch from their faces: _FLYING MOTORCYCLE MYSTIFIES MUGGLES_.

"Try saying that three times fast." Regina muttered. At Snape's look, she shut up again. Snape pulled the newspaper back and began to read aloud:

"Two Muggles in London, convinced they saw an old car flying over the Post Office tower... at noon in Norfolk, Mrs. Hetty Bayliss, while hanging out her washing... Mr. Angus Fleet, of Peebles, reported to police... Six or seven Muggles in all."

"To be fair, they could've been on LSD." Hope put in. Snape and Regina looked at her, expression conveying anger and confusion at the same time.

Before anything else could be said, Professor McGonagall burst through the door. Hope had almost forgotten how thin her lips could go when she was angry. She raised her wand and the girls flinched, but she merely pointed it at the empty fireplace, where flames suddenly erupted.

"Sit." She ordered. The girls backpedaled instantly and fell into chairs by the fire. "Explain."

Regina launched into the story, starting with the barrier at the station refusing to let them through. Snape and McGonagall listened somewhat patiently, though their glares could've killed.

"... So we had no choice, Professor, we couldn't get on the train."

"Why didn't you send us a letter by owl?" Now that she had mentioned that, it seemed like the obvious thing to do. Hope spoke up meekly.

"I didn't think-."

"That is obvious." Professor McGonagall spat out.

The door opened once more. On the other side stood the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore. He was looking unusually grave. He stared down his very crooked nose at them and Hope found herself suddenly wishing they had just camped out in the Forbidden Forest for the night.

There was a long silence before Professor Dumbledore said anything:

"Please explain why you did this."

Hope explained everything, trying not to meet anyone's eyes. She normally felt more like an adult than the people around her; living on her own had a way of making her feel older than she was. But, in that moment, she had never felt more like a child. She stared at her knees, which were visibly bruised through the ripped denim of her jeans.

"We'll go get our stuff." Regina said hopelessly as their grand tale finished. Only their grand tale didn't sound so grand then...

"What are you talking about, Weasley?" Professor McGonagall barked.

"Well, you're expelling us, aren't you?" Regina asked quietly.

"Not today, Ms. Weasley." Dumbledore informed her. "But I must impress upon both of you the seriousness of what you have done. I will be writing to both your families tonight." Hope fought back a comment that she had no family to write to. Given the look that Dumbledore shot her quickly, she knew he wanted her to keep her mouth shut. "I must also warn you that if you do anything like this again, I will have no choice but to expel you."

Snape looked as though Christmas had been canceled. He cleared his throat and hurried to put in:

"Professor Dumbledore, these girls have flouted the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry-."

"And they will be punished accordingly, but they were merely impulsive. It's not a crime to be so young and childish."

"But this girl-." He pointed at Hope. "-is in my house and as head of house-."

"But they are both in my school, Severus. I believe I will let them off with detention and a warning. Now, I must go back to the feast. I've got to give out a few notices. Come, Severus, there's a delicious looking custard tart I want to sample." Snape shot a look of pure venom at the girls as he allowed himself to be swept out of the office by Professor Dumbledore.

"You'd better get along to the hospital wing, Weasley, you're bleeding." Professor McGonagall spoke up as the door swung shut once more.

"Not much." Regina protested, hastily wiping the cut over her eye with her sleeve. "Professor, I wanted to watch my brother being Sorted-."

"The Sorting Ceremony is over. Your brother is also in Gryffindor."

"Oh, good."

Professor McGonagall raised her wand again and pointed it at Snape's desk. A large plate of sandwiches, two silver goblets and a jug of iced pumpkin juice appeared with a pop.

"You will eat in here and then go straight to your dormitories. I must also return to the feast." When the door had closed behind her, Regina let out a long, low whistle.

"I thought we'd had it." She said, grabbing a sandwich.

"So did I." Hope agreed, snatching a sandwich for herself.

"Why couldn't we get through the barrier?" Regina questioned through a mouthful of chicken, ham and bread.

"I don't know." Hope tucked her legs up against her chest, staring down into her goblet of pumpkin like it had all the answers in the universe. Somehow, she knew it hadn't been an accident that she'd nearly been stopped from coming back to school. "Someone really doesn't want me here.

"Lots of people don't." Regina pointed out as she stuffed another over-sized bite of sandwich into her mouth. "Pansy... Crabbe... Goyle... Cormac... Snape.. Anyone who liked that teacher you killed last year-."

"Okay, okay." Hope cut her off; she didn't need to be reminded off all the people that had reason to hate her. What she did need was some sleep and some peace and quiet for once in her life...


	33. So It Begins Again

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

After she had eaten too many sandwiches and drank too much pumpkin juice, Hope stumbled down to the entrance of the Slytherin common room. The castle was quiet; it seemed the feast was over. Regina had already headed off to the Gryffindor tower, so Hope walked alone.

It was only once she hit the bottom step did she realize something: she didn't know the password to get in. If you didn't know the password, you had to sleep outside with the rats. Thankfully, as she looked up, she spotted Cassie waiting for her, leaning the nondescript brick wall that was actually the entrance to their home nine months out of the year.

Her hair was still pulled up into a fancy braided bun and she wore jewelry probably more expensive than any place Hope had ever lived, excluding Hogwarts. It clashed with her Hogwarts robes, but Hope kept her mouth shut about that.

"Password?" She asked hopefully, putting on her best innocent face.

"I have it." Cassie agreed with a smirk that screamed 'Slytherin'. "First: have you been expelled?"

"No."

"Arrested?"

"No."

"Sentenced to death?"

"I would think arrest would come before that, so I'm going to stick with no."

"Good." Cassie pushed herself off the wall with one high-heel foot to strand upright. She turned to face the wall. "Veela hair." At her words, the bricks moved aside to create an archway for them to walk through.

The Slytherin common room was full. Some students were talking with old friends, others were congratulating the half a dozen new students that had joined the Slytherin ranks. Hope spotted Aries Malfoy among the new ones, but Cassie didn't go over to him. Instead, she walked straight to the dormitories and Hope followed her, ready to fall asleep on her feet.

As they entered their dormitory, Hope felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Hogwarts was home, but their dormitory was the best part of their home. Their dormitory was where she and Cassie were safe, as nothing bad had ever happened in their room, and comfortable. At the sight of her four-poster, queen-sized bed, covered in green and silver blankets and pillows, Hope grinned. Taking a running start, she jumped onto her bed and sank into the mattress. Crookshanks, who had been watching fish out the window, came to join her.

"Welcome home." Cassie told her, slightly less stiffly now that their conversation about possible death sentences was over.

"You too." Hope told her casually, though she had the feeling Hogwarts was an escape for Cassie just like it was for her. After having the misfortune of meeting her father, Hope no longer envied the rich girl.

"Aries made Slytherin." Cassie put in, sitting down on her own bed and toeing off her high-heels.

"That's good, right?" Hope tugged her hair out of it's tangled ponytail and came back with a handful of crashed leaves she hadn't known had gotten stuck in there.

"He's been looking at Pansy Parkinson like she walks on water all night." She scoffed, beginning to undo her own hair.

"Not good."

"Not good at all..." Cassie agreed with a sigh. The last thing they needed was another lapdog for Pansy Parkinson. She already had too many boys falling over their own feet trying to impress her, usually by bullying Hope and her friends. "You and Hermes should be glad you're don't have siblings. They're pains."

"You can bond with Regina over it." Hope suggested with a smile. Regina and Cassie had never been the closest of the friends. It might have been because of their differences, yet Hope saw more than a few similarities between them.

"I'm going to bed. I'll worry about the state of my brother's sanity tomorrow." She announced.

"Night."

"Goodnight."

* * *

Classes were set to begin the next day and the girls dragged themselves out of bed for breakfast before the inevitable. Slytherin table had new faces, but they seemed to have already broken off into groups of friends. That was more than fine with Hope; she had her own group, after all.

She sat with her back to the Ravenclaw table, but they were still within arms length of each other as Hermes berated her for getting into trouble before term had even officially begun. Hufflepuff table was beyond that and she could see Nadine Longbottom, who waved in greeting to her and seemed overly pleased when the gesture was returned. She wondered if the girl had made any friends at all the previous year. Gryffindor table was at the other end of the hall and Hope could see Regina sitting somewhat alone, though her siblings were all nearby.

Hope had just started on her toast when mail came in. Hundreds of owls streamed in and began dropping packages for their owners. Hope had no owl or mail, but that didn't bother her as much as it had used to.

She was just taking another bite of toast when yelling filled the hall, making goblets and plates rattle. And, unfortunately, she recognized the voice as Mrs. Weasley's.

" _STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY EXPELLED YOU! YOU WAIT UNTIL I GET A HOLD OF YOU!_ "

Hope turned slowly around in her seat and saw Regina sinking so low in her seat that only her crimson forehead was visible. A red envelope was floating in the air in front of her and the screaming was coming from it, though it might as well have been coming from every single brick in the Great Hall from the volume.

" _-LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT! I DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS! YOU AND HOPE COULD'VE DIED_ -!"

Hope had been wondering when her name would pop up. A few people turned to look at her and she pretended to be oblivious to what was going on.

"- _ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, I 'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!_ "

A ringing silence fell as the envelope burst into flames and turned into ash. A few people laughed and then, finally, a babble of talk broke out again. Regina stayed out of sight, sunk down in her seat. Hope was wondering if she would ever come out again.

"Serves you both right." Hermes told Hope, who shot him a look.

"Thanks." She told him sarcastically. He simply went back to reading his book.

* * *

As if the Howler wasn't a sure sign of the bad day to come already, Hope was caught by Lockhart before her first class. He kept her from entering the Herbology green house, much to Professor Sprout's anger, but Lockhart just slammed the door in her face and pulled Hope aside.

"Hope, Hope, Hope..." He began, shaking his head and smiling. "When I heard... well, of course, it was all my fault. I could've kicked myself. Don't know when I've been more shocked. Flying a motorcycle to Hogwarts! Well, of course, I knew at once why you'd done it. Stood out a mile. Hope, Hope, Hope. Gave you a taste for publicity, didn't I?"

"I don't think I need anymore." Hope told him dryly. She was already The Girl Who Lived; she hadn't meant to make the front page with her motorcycle.

"I _understand_." Lockhart continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Natural to want a bit more once you've had that first taste and I blame myself for giving you that, because it was bound to go to your head. But see here, young lady, you can't start flying motorcycles to try and get yourself noticed. Just calm down, all right? Plenty of time for all that when you're older. Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking! 'It's all right for him, he's an internationally famous wizard already!' But when I was twelve, I was just as much of a nobody as you are now. In fact, I'd say I was even more of a nobody! I mean, a few people have heard of you, haven't they? All that business with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!" He glanced at the lightning scar on Hope's forehead. "I know, I know. It's not quite as good as winning Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row, as I have. But it's a start, Hope, it's a start."

Hope stared at him, trying to figure out how Professor Voldemort-On-The-Back-Of-His-Head Quirrell had been a better teacher than him from day one. Before she could think to respond, Lockhart gave her a wink and strode off. Still trying to wrap her head around the 'talk' they'd had, Hope went into the greenhouse.

It was Slytherins and Ravenclaws learning together, which meant she had a good chance of being partnered up with Hermes. As she took her place next to him, she saw about twenty pairs of different-colored earmuffs were lying on the trestle bench.

"We'll be repotting Mandrakes today." Professor Sprout announced. "Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?" To nobody's surprise, Hermes's hand shot up into the air.

"Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative." He sounded, as usual, as if he had swallowed the textbook. "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state."

"Excellent. Ten points to Ravenclaw. The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?" Hermes's hand narrowly missed Hope's glasses as it shot up again.

"The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it."

"Precisely. Take another ten points. Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young." She pointed to a row of deep trays as she spoke and everyone shuffled forward for a better look.

A hundred or so tufty little plants, purplish green in color, were growing there in rows. They looked quite unremarkable to Hope, who didn't have the slightest idea what Hermes meant by the 'cry' of the Mandrake. She had seen weeds in back alleys that looked exactly the same and those weren't fatal by any means.

"Everyone take a pair of earmuffs." Professor Sprout directed. There was a scramble as everyone tried to seize a pair that wasn't pink and fluffy. "When I tell you to put them on, make sure your ears are completely covered. When it is safe to remove them, I will give you the thumbs-up. Right. Earmuffs on." Hope snapped the earmuffs over her ears. They shut out sound completely. She squirmed; she didn't like having one of her senses taken away so completely like that.

In front of the class, Professor Sprout put the pink, fluffy pair over her own ears, rolled up the sleeves of her robes, grasped one of the tufty plants firmly, and pulled hard. Hope let out a gasp of surprise that no one could hear. Instead of roots, a small, muddy, and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. The leaves were growing right out of his head. He had pale green, mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his lungs. It was like a car crash: no matter how ugly, it was something that just had to be stared at. Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the Mandrake into it, burying him in dark, damp compost until only the tufted leaves were visible. Professor Sprout dusted off her hands, gave them all the thumbs-up, and removed her own earmuffs.

"As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet." She said calmly as though she'd just done nothing more exciting than water a begonia. "However, they will knock you out for several hours, and as I'm sure none of you want to miss your first day back, make sure your earmuffs are securely in place while you work. I will attract your attention when it is time to pack up. Four to a tray. There is a large supply of pots here. Compost in the sacks over there. And be careful of the Venomous Tentacula, it's teething." She gave a sharp slap to a spiky, dark red plant as she spoke, making it draw in the long feelers that had been inching sneakily over her shoulder.

Professor Sprout had made it look extremely easy, but it wasn't. The Mandrakes didn't like coming out of the earth, but they didn't seem to want to go back into it either. They squirmed, kicked, flailed their sharp little fists and gnashed their teeth; Hope spent ten whole minutes trying to squash a particularly fat one into a pot and got dirty looks from Hermes when she ending up hitting it in the head with another pot.

By the end of the class, Hope, like everyone else, was sweaty, aching, and covered in earth. Everyone traipsed back to the castle for a quick wash and then the Slytherins headed to Transfiguration with the Gryffindors.

Professor McGonagall's classes were always hard work, but that day was especially difficult. Everything Hope had learned last year seemed to have leaked out of her head during the summer. She was supposed to be turning a beetle into a button, but all she managed to do was give her beetle a lot of exercise as it scuttled over the desktop avoiding her wand.

Regina was having far worse problems. She had patched up her wand with some borrowed Spellotape, but it seemed to be damaged beyond repair. It kept crackling and sparking at odd moments and every time she tried to transfigure her beetle it engulfed her in thick gray smoke that smelled of rotten eggs. Unable to see what she was doing, Regina accidentally squashed her beetle with her elbow and had to ask for a new one. Professor McGonagall wasn't pleased.

Hope was relieved to hear the lunch bell. Her brain felt like a wrung sponge. Everyone filed out of the classroom except her and Regina, who was whacking her wand furiously on the desk.

"Stupid useless thing-."

"Write home for another one." Hope suggested as the wand let off a volley of bangs like a firecracker. Hope quickly reached over and snatched the wand out of Regina's hand to stop her from doing any more damage.

"Oh, yeah, and get another Howler back." Regina agreed sarcastically, snatching her wand back and stuffing it into her bag. "'It's your own fault your wand got snapped'!"

After they had eaten lunch, the girls, Cassie and Hermes went out to sit in the overcast courtyard. Cassie had brought some of Lockhart's books to read while Hermes wrote up a studying plan for the week, sitting on a stone bench together. Regina and Hope stretched out on the stone by their friends' feet and talked about Quidditch. Hope had plans to try out for the Slytherin team that year and, while Regina was a fan of Quidditch herself, she wasn't planning on trying out for the Gryffindor team until she knew if she was any good at it.

They had been talking for several minutes before Hope got the feeling of being watched. She turned to see the small, mousy-haired boy she'd seen at the sorting the night before. He was clutching what looked like an ordinary Muggle camera and staring at Hope a though transfixed.

Hope raised a hand and waved in greeting at the little creeper. The boy turned bright red, but edged towards her.

"I'm Colin Creevey. I'm in Gryffindor. D'you think... would it be alright if... Can I have a picture?" He raised the camera hopefully.

"A picture?" Hope echoed.

"So I can prove I met you. I know all about you. Everyone's told me. How you survived when You-Know-Who tried to kill you and how-."

"Alright." Hope cut him off. "No need for the cliff-notes; I've got the whole story." Her joke seemed to put the boy more at ease as he hurried another couple steps forward.

"So can I? Take a picture, I mean? With you?"

"Sure." Hope shrugged. The kid was a little bit of a creeper, but seemed nice enough. She stood up and brushed herself off to make sure there wasn't any dirt on her. "You know, my friends here saved the school last year."

"I heard!" Colin said excitedly, his eyes raking over all of them. Her friends gave polite waves in return. "Maybe... I could get a picture with all of you?"

"Sure." The friends grouped in close around the first-year. Colin pointed the camera towards them, stretched his arm out and snapped the picture.

"Wow! Thanks! And a boy in my dormitory said if I develop the film in the right potion, the pictures'll move." Colin drew a great shuddering breath of excitement and went on: "It's amazing here, isn't it? I never knew all the odd stuff I could do was magic till I got the letter from Hogwarts. My dad's a milkman, he couldn't believe it either. So I'm taking loads of pictures to send home to him. And... maybe when I get it developed you could sign it?" He looked up, puppy-dog-eyes and all, at Hope. She laughed at his innocent adorableness.

"If you want."

"Signed photos? You're giving out signed photos?" A loud, stuffy voice asked. Hope turned to see Pansy Parkinson behind her, flanked by her two lapdogs, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Shut up, Pansy." Hope snapped at her. And here she'd almost been enjoying her break...

"You're just jealous." Colin piped up. Hope wished he hadn't; his entire body was about as thick as Crabbe's neck. She could sense a fight was about to start; she glanced to her left to see Regina clenching her fists in preparation. Cassie and Hermes were sitting back on the bench, but keeping a close eye on the situation.

"Jealous?" Pansy scoffed. "Of what? A nasty scar? Big glasses? No parents?"

"Eat slugs." Regina snapped at her, as if that was the worst insult imaginable.

"Be careful, Weasley." Pansy warned in mock concern. "You don't want to start any trouble or your mommy'll have to come and take you away from school. Maybe you can get a signed photo before you leave. It'll pay for a better house for your family, right?" She put on a pouting face but then burst into laughter.

Regina and Hope were just stepping forward to put Pansy in her place when Hermes jumped in front of them and hissed:

"Watch out."

"What's all this, what's all this?" Lockhart was striding towards them. "Who's giving out signed photos?"

Hope tried to walk away; she would've rather dealt with Pansy in any other place than the place Lockhart was. But he grabbed her shoulder before she could get far.

"Shouldn't have asked! We meet again, Hope!" Pinned to Lockhart's side and burning with humiliation, Hope saw Pansy slide smirking back into the crowd. "Come on then, Mr. Creevey. A double portrait, can't do better than that, and we'll both sign it for you."

Colin fumbled for his camera and took the picture as the bell rang behind them, signaling the start of afternoon classes.

"Off you go, move along there." Lockhart called to the crowd, and he set off back to the castle with Hope still clasped to his side. She wondered how much detention she would get if she kicked him in the shin right then and there. "A word to the wise, Hope., I covered up for you back there with young Creevey. If he was photographing me, too, your schoolmates won't think you're setting yourself up so much."

"Gee, thanks." Oblivious to Hope's venomous sarcasm, Lockhart swept her down a corridor lined with staring students and up a staircase.

"Let me just say that handing out signed pictures at this stage of your career isn't sensible. Looks a tad bigheaded, Hope, to be frank. There may well come a time when, like me, you'll need to keep a stack handy wherever you go, but-." He gave a little chortle. "I don't think you're quite there yet."

They had reached Lockhart's classroom and he let Hope go at last. She yanked her robes straight and headed for a seat at the very back of the class, where she busied himself with piling all seven of Lockhart's books in front of her, so that she could avoid looking at the real thing.

The rest of the class came clattering in. Hermes and Cassie sat down on either side of her. Hermes looked sympathetic and Cassie was looking like she was about to speak, but the looks Hope shot both of them was enough to make them busy themselves with their own books.

When the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell. He reached forward, picked up Sally Smith's copy of Travels with Trolls and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.

"Me." He said, pointing at it and winking as well. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award. But I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" He waited for them to laugh; a few people smiled weakly. "I see you've all bought a complete set of my books. Well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about. Just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in..."

When he had handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said:

"You have thirty minutes. Start... now!"

Hope looked down at her paper and read:

 _1: What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

 _2: What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?_

 _3: What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?_

On and on it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:

 _54: When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?_

Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers and rifled through them in front of the class.

"Tut, tut. Hardly any of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac. I say so in Year with the Yeti. And a few of you need to read Wanderings with Werewolves more carefully. I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples. Though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky!" He gave them another roguish wink.

Hermes was now staring at Lockhart with an expression of disbelief and mild disgust on his face; Sally Smith and Daphne Greengrass, who were sitting in front, were shaking with silent laughter. Cassie, on the other hand, was listening to Lockhart with rapt attention and gave a start when he mentioned her name.

"But Miss Cassiopeia Malfoy knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions. Good girl! In fact, full marks! Where is Miss Cassiopeia Malfoy?" Cassie raised a perfectly manicured, yet trembling, hand. "Excellent! Quite excellent! Take ten points for Slytherin! And so, to business."

He bent down behind his desk and lifted a large, covered cage onto it. Hope perked up, as did some f the other students in the class. Maybe they would actually learn something useful. Besides Lockhart's favorite type of flower, that is.

"Now, be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm. I must ask you not to scream. It might provoke them." As the whole class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover. "Yes! Freshly caught Cornish pixies."

Daphne Greengrass couldn't control herself. She let out a giggle that even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror.

"Yes?" He smiled at her.

"Those aren't very dangerous." She scoffed.

"Don't be so sure!" Lockhart scolded, waggling a finger annoyingly at her, who looked over with a raised eyebrow at Sally Smith. "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!"

The pixies were electric blue and about eight inches high, with pointed faces and voices so shrill it was like nails on a chalkboard. The moment the cover had been removed, they had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and making bizarre faces at the people nearest them. They were ugly and annoying, but Hope was in agreement with her fellow Slytherin: they didn't look very dangerous to her.

"Right, then. Let's see what you make of them!" And he opened the cage.

It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Two of them started yanking fistfuls of hair out of Daphne's scalp while Sally desperately swung at them with her book. Several shot straight through the window, showering Hope, Hermes, Cassie and the rest of the back row with razor-sharp, broken glass. The rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the walls, up-ended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window. Within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and Daphne was sobbing in a fetal position on the floor.

One pixie tried to grab Cassie's shiny diamond ring right off herfinger and flicked it away. It came back in full force and, when Cassie ducked, it hit Hope and immediately started yanking her hair. She screamed at the sharp yank and Hermes batted it off with his textbook.

"Come on now! Round them up, round them up, they're only pixies," Lockhart shouted at the front of the classroom. He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed: "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!"

It had absolutely no effect; one of the pixies seized his wand and threw it out of the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, narrowly avoiding a jar of ink that was lobbed at his head.

The bell rang and there was a mad rush toward the exit. In the relative calm that followed, Lockhart straightened up, caught sight of Hope, Cassie and Hermes, who were almost at the door, and called out to them:

"Well, I'll ask you three to just nip the rest of them back into their cage." He swept past them and shut the door quickly behind him, trapping them in.

"That perfume-wearing, flower-liking son of a-." Hope cut herself off with a sharp 'ow' as one of the remaining pixies bit her on the ear.

"He just wants to give us some hands-on experience. Pixies always come in packs like this." Cassie protesting, wrestling her necklace away from one pixie.

"Not in classrooms." Hermes shot back, immobilizing two pixies at once with a clever Freezing Charm and stuffing them back into their cage.

"Hands on?" Hope echoed, trying to grab a pixie dancing out of reach with its tongue out. "Cassie, he didn't have a clue what he was doing!"

"Rubbish." Cassie shot back defensively. "You've read his books, haven't you? Look at all those amazing things he's done-."

"I can write a book saying I had a tea party with a unicorn! Doesn't mean I've actually done it!" Hope snarled. A pixie pointed a sharp quill at her like a sword and she had to dive for a book to use as a shield. Cassie opened her mouth to argue her point, but shut it again in favor of grabbing hold of one and throwing it over-hand towards the cage.

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 **A/N One of my longer chapters, if not the longest, but there was really no good place to break it up. Not the most exciting chapter either, but some chapters are just necessary. As always, please review and tell me what you think. It takes hours to write, minutes to read but only a few seconds to review! Anyway, hope everyone is still enjoying this story as we get into The Chamber of Secrets.**


	34. Try-Outs

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

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Quidditch try-outs were over the weekend. After a week of disasters involving Lockhart and Regina's malfunctioning wand, Hope was glad for the distraction. Even if it meant getting up early on the weekend to go out to the quidditch pitch.

Cassie was trying out for the Slytherin team as well and they walked down together to the pitch. By the time they arrived, a group of Slytherins were already there. The captain of the quidditch team, Marcus Flint, was drilling the others already. While everyone described Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor team, as a mother hen, Hope had the feeling that Marcus Flint was more of a pack leader that would eat the weak in a heartbeat.

"We don't lose, is that understood? Whoever messes up our game will regret it!" He was snarling. Cassie and Hope exchanged looks.

"Maybe we should go back..." Cassie suggested.

"I'm staying." Hope shot back. Cassie made a face, but then steeled herself and they walked over to join the group.

The try-outs were harder than Hope had expected. She hadn't been on a broom since the previous year and while she was a natural, it took a minute to get back into the mindset it took it ride a broom. Once everyone had proved that they could actually ride on a broom, Flint started having them try out for different positions.

Hope sat on her broom near the edge of the Quidditch pitch, watching as Cassie eagerly defended the goals from the quaffles thrown at her by various players. She was good, Hope saw, as she kicked away an incoming quaffle.

After she was done and others were trying out for the same position, Cassie flew over to wait with Hope. She was a little out of breath as she tossed her hair out of her face, but smiling widely at her success.

"Good job." Hope congratulated her.

"I know." Cassie agreed smugly and Hope rolled her eyes. You can take the girl out of Malfoy Manor...

The position of the sun told her it was late morning by the time Hope was called to try out for the seeker position. Two other Slytherins were trying out as well, both older than her. She tried to ignore them as they called out all the classic 'four-eyes' jokes their little minds could think up. And, when Flint let loose the snitch, she was the first one to move while they were distracted.

The snitch was tiny; even with the clear day, it was hard to catch sight of it. As she scanned the sky for any sign of it, she spotted people coming into the stands to watch. Hermes and Regina were there, though Regina, as a Gryffindor, seemed to be arguing with Flint. Pansy was there as well, with her lapdogs, Crabbe and Goyle, and even Aries Malfoy.

Hope looked away from them, trying to focus on her goal. The other two hopeful seekers were flying around desperately, heads whipping side to side as they looked around in a near frenzy. Hope stayed where she was; she didn't want to fly into something while she was looking.

A flash of gold caught her eye. She looked over and saw the snitch hovering around one of the stands. One of the other hopeful seekers was about to see it, she knew, and he'd get it before she could. She let loose the loudest gasp she could and started speeding in the opposite direction. Like expected, the other two raced in the direction she was going and overtook her quickly as she slowed. She turned the broom around and shot like a javelin at the snitch. She closed her gloved fist around and held it up triumphantly.

The other two failed seekers turned around and saw her. The looks of anger on their faces just made her smirk as she landed and handed over the snitch to a smirking Flint.

Five minutes later, the other two were still howling and calling her a cheater. But, as Flint informed them, she was just smarter than them. She had made the team, along with Cassie. The girls hugged each other excitedly and ran to join Regina and Hermes.

"That was brilliant." Regina gushed.

"That was very Slytherin of you." Hermes told her, though he didn't look as happy for her.

"How odd." Hope said sarcastically.

"Why, how could possibly have any Slytherin traits?" Regina added in the same tone.

"It's ludicrous." Cassie agreed. They all laughed at Hermes's annoyed expression.

"Congratulations." A voice said from behind them. It was Aries, staring sheepishly at his sister. Cassie's whole face lit up, as though all her dreams had come true at once.

"Thank you!"

"Well, they've lowered the standards for players, I see." Pansy's voice came from behind Aries.

"What do you know about Quidditch, Pansy?" Hermes scoffed.

"Not much." Aries whispered to them, but Pansy still heard. Face flushed with anger, she turned her wrath on Hermes.

"More than you, you filthy little mudblood!"

There was an instant uproar at her words. Aries dove in front of Pansy to protect her from Hope and Regina leaping at her. Cassie's voice was high and shrill as she shrieked ' _how dare you!_ ', though Hope wasn't sure if she was more appalled at Pansy's words or by Aries's action. Regina, seeing Aries was going to stop her from physically attacking the other girl, dug into her pocket for her wand.

"You'll pay for that one, Parkinson!" She pointed the wand under Aries's arm and a loud bang echoed around the stadium. A jet of green light shot out of the wrong end of Regina's wand, hitting her in the stomach and sending her reeling backwards onto the grass.

"Regina!" Hermes shouted, his eyes wide. "Are you alright?"

Regina opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, she gave an almighty belch and several slugs dribbled out of her mouth onto her lap. Hermes grimaced and Cassie ran off to puke into the nearest bushes. Pansy was on the ground, rolling with laughter. Aries was chuckling too, though he looked fairly disgusted himself.

"We better get her to Hagrid's. It's the nearest." Hope said and Hermes nodded bravely. They hauled Regina up by her arms and hurried away, Cassie following at a safe distance.

"Nearly there, Regina." Hermes assured her as the gamekeeper's cabin came into view. "You'll be all right in a minute. Almost there."

They were within twenty feet of Hagrid's house when the front door opened, but it wasn't Hagrid who emerged. Gilderoy Lockhart, wearing robes of palest mauve, came striding out. Hope swerved and dragged Regina behind the nearest bush. Hermes paused to grab a hopeful looking Cassie and shove her behind cover as well.

"It's a simple matter if you know what you're doing!" Lockhart was saying loudly to Hagrid. "If you need help, you know where I am! I'll let you have a copy of my book. I'm surprised you haven't already got one. I'll sign one tonight and send it over. Well, good-bye!" And he strode away toward the castle.

Hope waited until Lockhart was out of sight, then she and Hermes pulled Regina out of the bush and up to Hagrid's front door. They knocked urgently. Hagrid appeared at once, looking very grumpy, but his expression brightened when he saw who it was.

"Bin wonderin' when you'd come ter see me. Come in, come in. Thought you mighta bin Professor Lockhart back again."

Hagrid didn't seem perturbed by Regina slug problem, which Hope hastily explained as she lowered her friend into a chair.

"Better out than in." He said cheerfully, plunking a large copper basin in front of him. "Get 'em all up, Regina."

"I don't think there's anything to do except wait for it to stop." Hermes put in anxiously, watching Regina bend over the basin. "That's a difficult curse to work at the best of times, but with a broken wand-."

Hagrid was bustling around making them tea. His boarhound, Fang, was slobbering over Cassie, who was trying to avoid looking at Regina, lest she start puking into a basin as well.

"What did Lockhart want with you, Hagrid?" Hope questioned as she sank into one of the big chairs.

"Givin' me advice on gettin' kelpies out of a well." Hagrid growled, moving a half-plucked rooster off his scrubbed table and setting down the teapot. "Like I don' know. An' bangin' on about some banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle." It was most unlike Hagrid to criticize a Hogwarts teacher and Hope looked at him in surprise and admiration.

"Well, Professor Dumbledore obviously thought he was the best man for the job." Cassie put in stiffly.

"He was the on'y man for the job." Hagrid shot back, offering them a plate of treacle toffee. "An' I mean the on'y one. Gettin' very difficult ter find anyone fer the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it on, see. They're startin' ter think it's jinxed. No one's lasted long fer a while now. So tell me. Who was she tryin' ter curse?"

"Pansy Parkinson." Hope snarled her name. It was girls like her that gave Slytherin house a bad name.

"She called Hermes a mudblood." Regina moaned from over the basin, pale and sweaty.

"She didn'!" Hagrid gasped, looking at Hermes.

"She did." Hermes agreed. He seemed more bothered by Regina's failed spell than the name-calling, though. "It was horrible rude, of course-."

"All those wizards, thinkin' they're better cause they're purebloods." Hagrid grumbled. Then he looked over at Cassie. "No offense."

"None taken." Cassie pretended to be very busy petting Fang; no one had mentioned how Aries had defended Pansy. Judging by the look on Cassie's face, it was probably better to keep it that way.

"An' they haven't invented a spell our Hermes can' do." Hagrid added proudly, making Hermes go a brilliant shade of magenta.

"Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married Muggles we'd've died out." Regina put in before leaning over the basin and gagging again.

"Well, I don' blame yeh fer tryin' ter curse him, Regina." Hagrid said loudly over the thuds of more slugs hitting the basin. "Bu' maybe it was a good thing yer wand backfired. 'Spect some parents would've come marchin' up ter school if yeh'd cursed their daughter. Least yer not in trouble."

Hope would have pointed out that trouble didn't come much worse than having slugs pouring out of your mouth, but she couldn't; Hagrid's treacle toffee had cemented her jaws together.

"Hope" Hagrid said abruptly as though struck by a sudden thought. "Gotta bone ter pick with yeh. I've heard you've bin givin' out signed photos. How come I haven't got one?" Furious, Hope wrenched her teeth apart.

"I have not been giving out signed photos! I let one kid take a picture with us. If Lockhart's been spreading that around-." She cut herself off when she saw Hagrid was laughing.

"I'm on'y jokin'." He assured her, patting her genially on the back and sending her face first into the table. "I knew yeh hadn't really. I told Lockhart yeh didn' need teh. Yer more famous than him without tryin'."

"Bet he didn't like that."

"Don' think he did." Hagrid agreed, his eyes twinkling. "An' then I told him I'd never read one o' his books an' he decided ter go. Treacle toffee, Regina?"

"No thanks. Better not risk it." Regina replied weakly.

"Come an' see what I've bin growin'." Hagrid urged as they finished the last of their tea. In the small vegetable patch behind Hagrid's house were a dozen of the largest pumpkins Hope had ever seen. Each was the size of a large boulder. "Gettin' on well, aren't they? Fer the Halloween feast . . . should be big enough by then."

"What've you been feeding them?" Hope asked in amazement. Hagrid looked over his shoulder to check that they were alone.

"Well, I've bin givin' them, you know, a bit o' help-." Hope noticed Hagrid's flowery pink umbrella leaning against the back wall of the cabin. Hope had had reason to believe before now that this umbrella was not all it looked; in fact, she had the strong impression that Hagrid's old school wand was concealed inside it. Hagrid wasn't supposed to use magic. He had been expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, but Hope had never found out why. Any mention of the matter and Hagrid would clear his throat loudly and become mysteriously deaf until the subject was changed.

"An Engorgement Charm, I suppose?" Hermes questioned, halfway between disapproval and amusement. "Well, you've done a good job on them."

"That's what yer little brother said." Hagrid told Regina. "Met him jus' yesterday." Hagrid looked sideways at Hope, his beard twitching. "Said he was jus' lookin' round the grounds, but I reckon he was hopin' he might run inter someone else at my house. If yeh ask me, he wouldn' say no ter a signed-."

"Oh, shut up!" Hope flushed. Regina snorted with laughter and the ground was sprayed with slugs.

"Watch it!" Hagrid roared, pulling her away from his precious pumpkins.

It was nearly lunchtime and as Cassie and Hope had only had one bite of treacle toffee since dawn, they was keen to go back to school to eat. They said good-bye to Hagrid and walked back up to the castle, Regina hiccoughing occasionally, but only bringing up two very small slugs.

They had barely set foot in the cool entrance hall when a voice rang out:

"There you are, Potter, Weasley." Professor McGonagall was walking toward them, looking stern. "You will both do your detentions this evening."

"What're we doing, Professor?" Regina asked as she nervously suppressed a burp.

"You will be polishing the silver in the trophy room with Mr. Filch. And no magic, Weasley. Elbow grease. And you, Potter, will be helping Professor Lockhart answer his fan mail."

"Can't I go and do the trophy room, too?" Hope asked hopefully.

"Certainly not. Professor Lockhart requested you particularly. Eight o'clock sharp, both of you."

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 **A/N And so begins Hope's quidditch career... I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As always, reviews are more than welcome!**


	35. Stranger Things

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

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That night, Hope found herself addressing envelopes in lilac ink and counting the ways to escape the torment that was Professor Lockhart's 'fascinating' stories. She let him talk, only adding an occasional 'hmm' or 'uh-huh' or 'please kill me' under her breath.

It was while she was debating how badly she would be injured if she swan-dived out his office window when she heard something. It was the spitting of the dying candles or Lockhart's prattle. It was another voice, a voice that seemed to chill her to the bone with breathtaking venom.

" _Come... come to me... Let me rip you... Let me tear you... Let me kill you..._ "

Hope gasped and jerked, blotting the envelope she'd been addressing.

"I know!" Lockhart said excitedly "Six solid months at the top of the best-seller list! Broke all records!"

"No." Hope snapped frantically. "That voice!"

"Sorry? What voice?" He looked at her, puzzled.

"That... that voice that said... didn't you hear it?" Lockhart was looking at Hope in high astonishment.

"What are you talking about, Hope? Perhaps you're getting a little drowsy? Great Scott, look at the time! We've been here nearly four hours! I'd never have believed it. The time's flown, hasn't it?"

"Like a pig..." Hope muttered absentmindedly; she was straining her ears to hear the voice again. But there was no sound now except for Lockhart telling her she mustn't expect a treat like this every time she got detention. Feeling dazed, Hope left.

Hope slipped down corridors, still listening for the voice. She hadn't realized how on edge she was onto Mrs. Norris rounded a corner and Hope screamed in surprise. Taking off at a run, she headed down into the Slytherin dormitories and slammed the door to her room shut behind her.

Cassie jerked awake at the slam and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"What's going on?" Still breathing heavily, Hope collapsed on Cassie's bed next to her and blurted out what had happened. "But Professor Lockhart didn't hear it? Well, perhaps it was just you-."

"Or maybe he was lying." Hope told her. "Or stupid."

"Take that back!" Cassie looked at her as if she had offended every family member she possessed. Hope rolled her eyes without humor.

"I don't get it." She whispered. Cassie sighed, raking her fingers through her long hair.

"I don't either."

* * *

October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden spate of colds among the staff and students. Her Pepperup Potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward. Gavin Weasley, who had been looking pale, was bullied into taking some by an over-protective Regina. The steam pouring from under his mop of vivid red hair gave the impression that his whole head was on fire.

Raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams and Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds. Everything seemed dark and dreary.

Hope and Cassie still went to Quidditch practices, rain or shine. They were the only girls on the team and the fact was pointed out many times until Hope 'accidentally' knocked Terence Higgs off his broom. The comments stopped after that, but the brutality of practice didn't.

As Hope and Cassie plodded along a deserted corridor in soaked clothes, they came across someone that looked nearly as miserable as they did. Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost of Gryffindor Tower, was staring morosely out of a window, muttering under his breath:

"Don't fulfill their requirements... half an inch, if that..."

"Hello, Nick." Hope greeted him. He wasn't their resident house ghost, but he was certainly nicer than the Bloody Baron.

"Hello, hello." Nearly Headless Nick returned, starting and looking round. He wore a dashing, plumed hat on his long curly hair, and a tunic with a ruff, which concealed the fact that his neck was almost completely severed. He was pale as smoke and Hope could see right through him to the dark sky and torrential rain outside. As he turned, he folded a transparent letter and tucked it inside his doublet.

"Bad news?" Cassie asked, motioning to the letter he'd failed to hide quickly enough.

"Ah, a matter of no importance... It's not as though I really wanted to join... Thought I'd apply, but apparently I 'don't fulfill requirements'." In spite of his airy tone, there was a look of great bitterness on his face. "But you would think, wouldn't you!" He erupted suddenly, pulling the letter back out of his pocket. "Getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would qualify you to join the Headless Hunt?"

"Oh, yes."

"Definitely." The girls agreed, as they were obviously supposed to do.

"I mean, nobody wishes more than I do that it had all been quick and clean, and my head had come off properly, I mean, it would have saved me a great deal of pain and ridicule. However-." Nearly Headless Nick shook his letter open and read furiously: " _We can only accept huntsmen whose heads have parted company with their bodies. You will appreciate that it would be impossible otherwise for members to participate in hunt activities such as Horseback HeadJuggling and Head Polo. It is with the greatest regret, therefore, that I must inform you that you do not fulfill our requirements. With very best wishes, Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore.'_ " Fuming, Nearly Headless Nick stuffed the letter away. "Half an inch of skin and sinew holding my neck on! Most people would think that's good and beheaded, but oh, no, it's not enough for Sir Properly Decapitated-Podmore." Nearly Headless Nick took several deep breaths that the girls weren't sure he needed.

A high-pitched mewling came from nearby and they all turned to a pair of lamp-like yellow eyes. It was Mrs. Norris.

"You'd better get out of here, girl. Filch isn't in a good mood. He's got the flu and some third years accidentally plastered frog brains all over the ceiling in dungeon five. He's been cleaning all morning, and if he sees you dripping mud all over the place..." He didn't have to say anymore; the girls were already moving to run back to their dormitories.

But, drawn to the spot by the mysterious power that seemed to connect him with his foul cat, Argus Filch burst suddenly through a tapestry to their right, wheezing and looking wildly about for the rule-breaker. There was a thick tartan scarf bound around his head and his nose was unusually purple.

"Filth!" He shouted, his jowls aquiver, his eyes popping alarmingly as he pointed at the muddy puddle that had dripped from their Quidditch robes. "Mess and muck everywhere! I've had enough of it, I tell you! Follow me, Potter, Malfoy!" So they waved a gloomy good-bye to Nearly Headless Nick and followed Filch back downstairs, doubling the number of muddy footprints on the floor.

Hope had never been inside Filch's office before; it was a place most students avoided. The room was dingy and windowless, lit by a single oil lamp dangling from the low ceiling. A faint smell of fried fish lingered about the place. Wooden filing cabinets stood around the walls; from their labels, Hope could see that they contained details of every pupil Filch had ever punished. Regina's older brothers, Fred and George Weasley, had an entire drawer to themselves. A highly polished collection of chains and manacles hung on the wall behind Filch's desk. It was common knowledge that he was always begging Dumbledore to let him suspend students by their ankles from the ceiling.

Filch grabbed a quill from a pot on his desk and began shuffling around looking for parchment.

"Dung." He muttered furiously. "Great sizzling dragon bogies... frog brains... rat intestines... I've had enough of it... make an example... where's the form... yes..." He retrieved a large roll of parchment from his desk drawer and stretched it out in front of him, dipping his long black quill into the ink pot. "Names... Hope Potter... Cassiopeia Malfoy... Crime..."

"It was only a bit of mud!" Hope protested in a groan. How many other students tracked mud in on a daily basis? It hardly seemed fair that it would be only her and Cassie getting punished for it.

"It's only a bit of mud to you, girl, but to me it's an extra hour scrubbing!" Filch shouted, a drip shivering unpleasantly at the end of his bulbous nose. "Crime... befouling the castle... suggested sentence... Dabbing at his streaming nose, Filch squinted unpleasantly at them, who waited with bated breath for their sentence to fall.

But as Filch lowered his quill, there was a great BANG! on the ceiling of the office, which made the oil lamp rattle. The girls jumped and moved out of the way of the door, as they could see Filch getting ready to make a move.

"PEEVES!" Filch roared, flinging down his quill in a transport of rage. "I'll have you this time, I'll have you!" And without a backward glance at Hope or Cassie, Filch ran flat-footed from the office, Mrs. Norris streaking alongside him.

Peeves was the school poltergeist, a grinning, airborne menace who lived to cause havoc and distress. Hope didn't much like Peeves, but she couldn't help feeling grateful for his timing. Hopefully, whatever Peeves had done, and it sounded as though he'd wrecked something very big this time, would distract Filch from them.

"Time to go." She announced to Cassie.

"Or..." Cassie motioned around at the literal treasure trove they were in. "Last year, he took a hair comb from me when I lost it in the hallway. He called it littering. That hair comb is worth more than his entire outfit."

"Let's get it." Hope agreed. Cassie smirked and began pulling open all the 'M' drawers. It was a one person job and, curiosity overtaking her, Hope starting look around at the rest of the drawers. There was one labeled ' _Confiscated and Highly Dangerous_ '. The lock looked as though it had been busted off a few times; Hope wondered how many times Fred and George and gone through the items inside. Moving along, she spotted another name on a large drawer: _Potter, James_.

She jumped at it and yanked it open in excitement. Filch might've kept something of her father's! Excitement raced through her as she started pulling items out and stuffing them into her pockets. There was a notebook, several little toys that she didn't know the purpose of but took anyway and a folded up piece of parchment.

"Time to go." Cassie sang cheerfully, slamming the drawers shut. In her hand, she held an emerald hair comb. Hope slammed the _Potter, James_ drawer shut and they started to make a run for it. As they passed the desk, they knocked off a glossy, purple envelope. Hope skidded to a stop and grabbed it to put it back its place. Cassie peered over to her shoulder to see what it was.

 _Kwikspell_

 _A Correspondence Course in Beginner's Magic_

Intrigued, Hope flicked the envelope open and pulled out the sheaf of parchment inside. More curly, silver writing on the front page said:

 _Feel out of step in the world of modern magic? Find yourself making excuses not to perform simple spells? Ever been taunted for your woeful wandwork? There is an answer!_

 _Kwikspell is an all-new, fail-safe, quick-result, easy-learn course. Hundreds of witches and wizards have benefited from the Kwikspell method!_

 _Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes:_

 _I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke! Now, after a Kwikspell course, I am the center of attention at parties and friends beg for the recipe of my Scintillation Solution!"_

 _Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury says:_

" _My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms, but one month into your fabulous Kwikspell course and I succeeded in turning her into a yak! Thank you, Kwikspell!"_

"He's a squib." Cassie hissed.

"A what?"

"Muggle born into a magical family." She explained in a hushed tone.

Shuffling footsteps sounded outside. Hope stuffed the papers back into the envelope and threw it back onto the desk as Cassie stuffed her comb into her pocket. The door swung open a second later to reveal a triumphant looking Filch.

"That vanishing cabinet was extremely valuable!" He was saying gleefully to Mrs. Norris. "We'll have Peeves out this time, my sweet-." Then his eyes fell on his desk and Hope realized she'd thrown the envelope a little too far: it had landed two feet away from where it had started.

Filch's pasty face went brick red. Hope braced herself for a tidal wave of fury. Filch hobbled across to his desk, snatched up the envelope and threw it into a drawer

"Have you... did you read...?" He sputtered.

"No." Hope and Cassie lied unison, which was probably suspicious. Filch's knobbly hands were twisting together.

"If I thought you'd read my private... not that it's mine... for a friend... be that as it may... however..." The girls were staring at him, alarmed; Filch had never looked madder. His eyes were popping, a tic was going in one of his pouchy cheeks and the tartan scarf didn't help. "Very well. Go. And don't breathe a word... not that... however, if you didn't read... Go now, I have to write up Peeves' report... Go!"

They didn't have to be told twice; Hope and Cassie booked it out of the office. To escape from Filch's office without punishment was probably some kind of school record and they didn't want to wait and have him change his mind.

"Girls, did it work?" Nearly Headless Nick came gliding out of a classroom. Behind him, Hope could see the wreckage of a large black-and-gold cabinet that appeared to have been dropped from a great height. "I persuaded Peeves to crash it right over Filch's office. Thought it might distract him."

"That was you?" Cassie asked in admiration.

"It worked. We didn't even get detention. Thank you, Nick." Hope added.

They set off up the corridor together. Nearly Headless Nick, Hope noticed, was still holding Sir Patrick's rejection letter.

"I wish there was something I could do for you about the Headless Hunt." Nearly Headless Nick stopped in his tracks and Hope walked right through him. She wished she hadn't; it was like stepping through an icy shower.

"But there is something you could do for me. Would I be asking too much... but no, you wouldn't want..."

"We owe you." Hope told him.

"Well, this Halloween will be my five hundredth deathday." Nearly Headless Nick announced, drawing himself up and looking dignified. Hope wasn't sure if she and Cassie should be happy or sad about that; judging by her friends face, she didn't know either. "I'm holding a party down in one of the roomier dungeons. Friends will be coming from all over the country. It would be such an honor if you would attend. Mrs. Weasley and Mr. Granger would be most welcome, too, of course. But I daresay you'd rather go to the school feast?" He watched Harry on tenterhooks.

"No, we'll come." Cassie told him with a dignified nod.

"My dear girl! Hope Potter, at my deathday party! And..." He hesitated, looking excited. "Do you think you could possibly mention to Sir Patrick how very frightening and impressive you find me?"

"Of... of course." Nearly Headless Nick beamed.


	36. A Piece Of Him

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N Internet was down for a while, so I couldn't update. But here's a double update to make up for it!**

* * *

After changing out of their Quidditch robes, Hope and Cassie met Hermes and Regina on one of the moving staircases. It was a habit they had begun during their first year: it was a nice enough place to meet and it wasn't like they could all gather in one common room.

Cassie explained their rescue to their friends and how they had promised to go to his his party.

"A deathday party?" Hermes asked keenly. "I bet there aren't many living people who can say they've been to one of those. It'll be fascinating!"

"Why would anyone want to celebrate the day they died?" Regina asked grumpily. "Sounds dead depressing to me..." She giggled at her pun, looked around to see if anyone had thought it was funny and, seeing they hadn't, frowned and went back to being grumpy.

"We also raided Filch's drawers."

"His underwear?" Hermes asked in disgust.

"No!" Hope smacked him for giving her that disturbing mental image. "His filing cabinets where he holds all the things he takes from students."

"Fred and George must have a big drawer." Regina mused.

"They do." Cassie reported.

"So did my father." Hope told them eagerly. Hermes turned to her with wide eyes.

"Filch kept some of your father's things?"

"Yeah. Look at this." She dumped all her new treasures on the landing and they all started poking through the pile in curiosity. Regina started playing with a self-spinning top that emitted sparks in the Gryffindor colors. Cassie immediately got trapped in a pair of Muggle Chinese hand-cuffs and Hermes had to rescue her. Hope flipped through the notebook and saw it was filled, cover to cover, with notes between him and what must've been very snarky friends of his. Among the notes were doodles of random things, including a snitch with the letters _J.P_ and _L.E_ sketched in the middle of it.

"What's this?" Hermes held up the plain piece of parchment.

"I don't know." Hope admitted, taking it from him. "But Filch had it, so it must be something." The parchment unfolded into a large piece of map, with several flaps. But Hermes was correct: it was all blank.

"Perhaps it has invisible messages on it." Cassie suggested. Then she looked down at her fingers, which were trapped in Chinese hand-cuffs again. Hermes sighed and reached over to rescue her once more.

"I have a revealer." Hermes announced once he had taken the hand-cuffs away from Cassie to prevent another entrapment. Out of his bag, he pulled out what appeared to be a bright red eraser. He rubbed hard over the parchment, but nothing happened.

"Maybe Filch just thought it _looked_ suspicious." Regina suggested.

"Maybe..." Hope wouldn't deny she was a little disappointed if they really was nothing there.

"Here." Hermes took out his wand and pointed it at the parchment. " _Aparecium_." That time, something did happen. Words appeared on the cover of the parchment and they all gathered around to read the curvy handwriting:

 _Perhaps you could speak?_

"And say what?" Hope questioned aloud. More writing replaced the former message:

 _Tell us something_

"Like what?" Hope asked again, feeling rather annoyed the paper couldn't just tell her what it wanted from her.

 _Swear to us you're up to no good_

"Uh... Maybe we shouldn't be trusting the talking piece of paper..." Cassie suggested nervously.

"It's not talking. It's writing." Regina pointed out. Cassie started at her.

"It's a piece of paper. It shouldn't be doing anything!"

"What, like staircases shouldn't move or portraits shouldn't speak?" Hope shot back at her dryly. She opened her mouth to argue, but didn't seem to have anything good to argue with, so she just clamped her jaw shut again.

"It's telling us to do bad things!" Hermes warned.

"It's just asking us to say we are." Regina corrected once again. Hope looked back down at the paper, which still displayed the same message.

"I swear we're up to no good?" It came out like a question. The writing disappeared and was replaced with one simple word:

 _Solemnly_

"Solemnly?" Hope said aloud in confusion.

 _Solemnly swear_

"I know swear words." Regina offered, raising her hand as if she was in class.

"No!" Hermes told her immediately.

"I think it means we're supposed to solemnly swear that we're up to no good." Hope informed her. That seemed to be the magic words. Dark ink appeared across the parchment and the four friends watched as new lines of words appeared.

 _Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs_

 _Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers_

 _Are Proud To Present_

 _The Marauders Map_

Hope flipped it open. Inside there was a map of the entire castle, drawn out in detail, even showing parts of the grounds. Even more amazing than that, though, was that it showed all the people inside the castle. Moving footsteps showed their location while their names were displayed above in the same curvy handwriting.

The four marveled over the map, eyes glancing over the hundreds of names spread around the castle. Hope found herself and her friends on the map and, testing it, jumped up and moved a few steps up. The map showed her movement instantly.

"This is an advanced piece of magic!" Hermes gushed as Hope sat back down with them.

"I've never seen anything like it." Regina agreed.

"This could be very useful." Cassie added with a smirk.

"I know." Hope replied, marveling over it herself. Had her father created it or just used it? She flipped back to where the names 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs' were displayed. She had never heard of any great wizards with nicknames like those.

"Code-names." Regina told her with a smile. "To keep their identities a secret."

"Maybe they were spies." Cassie suggested, adventure twinkling in her blue eyes.

"Or just trouble-makers." Hermes pointed at the line below their 'code-names': _Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers_.

"Or that." Cassie agreed, looking a little deflated.

"We should go back to our dormitories. It's almost time to lights-out." Hermes reminded them. Looking at the map, they could indeed see that Filch was beginning to make his rounds, trying to catch students lurking around after hours.

Quickly, they divided the spoils. Hope took the map and the notebook, while Hermes begrudgingly gave the Chinese hand-cuffs back to a curious Cassie and Hope gave the little toys to Regina. Then they separated and hurried back to their dormitories.

Once she was safe in their dormitory, Hope turned her attention back to the map.

"How do I turn it off?" She questioned no one in particular. Cassie gave her a look of 'how am I supposed to know' before she disappeared into the bathroom to shower. By the time Hope looked back down at the map, a line of writing had appeared.

 _Mischief managed?_

Hope smiled; she knew the drill by then.

"Mischief managed." The map turned blank once more.

As she put the map in her trunk alongside her invisibility cloak and scrapbook, she had to smile. She had found a piece of her dad. Not been given, but found on her own. She put the notebook with the scribbles and doodles inside the trunk as well. Maybe it was a silly thing to keep, but she just liked it. A sign that her father had used to be silly and, most likely, not paying attention in class.

As she shut the trunk again, she smiled. Maybe she'd have to raid Filch's office more often...

* * *

 **A/N As much as I loved Fred and George giving Harry the map in the original books, I really wanted Hope to find something of her father's instead of always being given things. Besides, I liked the idea of there being an entire drawer full of weird little things that Filch had taken away from James.**

 **I hope you enjoyed. The second part of the double update will be up momentarily. As always, please review and tell me what you think!**


	37. Deathday

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

As Halloween arrived, Hope was regretting her decision to go to the deathday party. The rest of the school was happily anticipating their Halloween feast; the Great Hall had been decorated with the usual live bats, Hagrid's vast pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in and there were rumors that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the entertainment.

"A promise is a promise." Hermes reminded Hope bossily. "You _said_ you would go to the deathday party."

"Technically, she said we would." Hope pointed at Cassie, who was fixing her hair and looking regretful herself.

At seven o'clock, Hope, Regina, Cassie and Hermes walked straight past the doorway to the packed Great Hall, which was glittering invitingly with gold plates and candles, and directed their steps instead toward the dungeons.

The passageway leading to Nearly Headless Nick's party had been lined with candles, too, though the effect was far from cheerful: These were long, thin, jet-black tapers, all burning bright blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over their own living faces. The temperature dropped with every step they took. As Hope shivered and drew her robes tightly around her, he heard what sounded like a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard.

"Is that supposed to be music?" Regina questioned.

They turned a corner and saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway hung with black velvet drapes.

"My dear friends." He said mournfully. "Welcome, welcome... so pleased you could come..." He swept off his plumed hat and bowed them inside.

It was an incredible sight. The dungeon was full of hundreds of pearly-white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowded dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a raised, black-draped platform. A chandelier overhead blazed midnight-blue with a thousand more black candles. Their breath rose in a mist before them; it was like stepping into a freezer.

"Shall we have a look around?" Hope suggested, wanting to warm up her feet.

"Careful not to walk through anyone." Regina muttered nervously and they set off around the edge of the dance floor.

They passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, a cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead. Harry wasn't surprised to see that the Bloody Baron, a gaunt, staring Slytherin ghost covered in silver bloodstains, was being given a wide berth by the other ghosts.

"Oh, no." Cassie suddenly whispered. "Moaning Myrtle."

Even Hope, cut off from the magical world most of her life and during the summer, knew who Moaning Myrtle was. She haunted one of the girl's bathrooms, which was out of order because she kept having tantrums and flooding the place. Hope had never gone in there anyway if she could avoid it; it wasn't easy to have a pee with a ghost wailing at you...

"Isn't she the one-?" Hermes began.

"Yes." Hope and Cassie cut him off, steering him away so they didn't run into the ghost. "Just walk away-."

"Look, food." Regina interrupted eagerly. On the other side of the dungeon was a long table, also covered in black velvet. They approached it eagerly but next moment had stopped in their tracks, horrified. The smell was quite disgusting. Large, rotten fish were laid on handsome silver platters; cakes, burned charcoal-black, were heaped on salvers; there was a great maggoty haggis, a slab of cheese covered in furry green mold and, in pride of place, an enormous gray cake in the shape of a tombstone, with tar-like icing forming the words:

 _Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington_

 _Died 31st October, 1492_

As they watched, a portly ghost approached the table, crouched low, and walked through it, his mouth held wide so that it passed through one of the stinking salmon.

"Can you taste it if you walk through it?" Hope asked curiously.

"Almost." The ghost replied sadly and then he drifted away.

"I expect they've let it rot to give it a stronger flavor." Hermes put in knowledgeably, pinching his nose and leaning closer to look at the putrid haggis.

"I'm gonna be sick." Regina moaned.

"Let's move." Cassie suggested, looking rather peeved at the state of the party.

They had barely turned around, however, when a little man swooped suddenly from under the table and came to a halt in midair before them.

"Hi, Peeves." Hope told him, trying to keep the dread out of her voice. Unlike the ghosts around them, Peeves the Poltergeist was the very reverse of pale and transparent. He was wearing a bright orange party hat, a revolving bow tie, and a broad grin on his wide, wicked face.

"Nibbles?" He asked sweetly, offering them a bowl of peanuts covered in fungus.

"No, thanks."

"Heard you talking about poor Myrtle." Peeves said, his eyes dancing. "Rude you was about poor Myrtle." He took a deep breath and bellowed: "OY! MYRTLE!"

"No, no, no!" Hope said quickly, trying to salvage the situation. They didn't need another flooded bathroom or sworn enemy. But it was too late; a squat ghost girl with lank hair and pearly spectacles had glided over.

"What?" She asked sulkily.

"How are you, Myrtle? It's nice to see you out of the toilet." Cassie said in a very diplomatic tone of voice.

"They was just talking about you." Peeves whispered slyly in Myrtle's ear.

"Just saying how lovely it is to see you out and about tonight." Cassie continued hurriedly. Myrtle narrowed her eyes at Cassie.

"You're making fun of me." She moaned, silver tears welling rapidly in her small, see-through eyes.

"No, honestly, was I not just saying that?" Cassie looked over at her friends with an expression that they caught onto quickly.

"Oh, yeah."

"Just a minute ago."

"I heard you say that."

"Don't lie to me!" Myrtle gasped, tears now flooding down her face, while Peeves chuckled happily over her shoulder. "D'you think I don't know what people call me behind my back? Fat Myrtle! Ugly Myrtle! Miserable, moaning, moping Myrtle!"

"You've forgotten pimply." Peeves hissed in her ear. Moaning Myrtle burst into anguished sobs and fled from the dungeon. Peeves shot after her, pelting her with moldy peanuts, yelling: "Pimply! Pimply!"

"Mother would keel over if she saw me at a place like this, upsetting people left and right." Cassie complained.

"You're right. So let's go." Regina agreed. But, at that moment, Nearly Headless Nick drifted towards them through the crowd.

"Enjoying yourselves?"

"Oh, yes." They lied in unison.

"Not a bad turnout. The Wailing Widow came all the way up from Kent... It's nearly time for my speech, I'd better go and warn the orchestra..." The orchestra, however, stopped playing at that very moment. They, and everyone else in the dungeon, fell silent, looking around in excitement, as a hunting horn sounded. "Oh, here we go." Nearly Headless Nick said bitterly.

Through the dungeon wall burst a dozen ghost horses, each ridden by a headless horseman. The assembly clapped wildly; Hope started to clap, too, but stopped quickly at the sight of Nick's face. The horses galloped into the middle of the dance floor and halted, rearing and plunging. At the front of the pack was a large ghost who held his bearded head under his arm, from which position he was blowing the horn. The ghost leaped down, lifted his head high in the air so he could see over the crowd and strode over to Nearly Headless Nick, squashing his head back onto his neck.

"Nick!" He roared. "How are you? Head still hanging in there?" He gave a hearty guffaw and clapped Nearly Headless Nick on the shoulder.

"Welcome, Patrick." Nick replied stiffly.

"Live 'uns!" Sir Patrick cried, spotting the four second-years and giving a huge, fake jump of astonishment, so that his head fell off again. The crowd howled with laughter.

"Very amusing." Nearly Headless Nick muttered darkly.

"Don't mind Nick!" Sir Patrick's head shouted from the floor. "Still upset we won't let him join the Hunt! But I mean to say. Look at the fellow-."

"I think." Hope put in hurriedly, at a meaningful look from Nick. "Nick's very... frightening and-."

"Ha! Bet he asked you to say that!"

"If I could have everyone's attention, it's time for my speech!" Nearly Headless Nick announced loudly, striding toward the podium and climbing into an icy blue spotlight. "My late lamented lords, ladies, and gentlemen, it is my great sorrow..." But nobody heard much more. Sir Patrick and the rest of the Headless Hunt had just started a game of Head Hockey and the crowd were turning to watch. Nearly Headless Nick tried vainly to recapture his audience, but gave up as Sir Patrick's head went sailing past him to loud cheers.

"We have technically fulfilled our promise." Cassie reminded Hope.

"So we have. Let's go."

The quartet backed toward the door, nodding and beaming at anyone who looked at them, and a minute later were hurrying back up the passageway full of black candles.

"Pudding might not be finished yet." Regina mused hopefully, leading the way toward the steps to the entrance hall. And then Hope heard it.

" _Rip... tear... kill._ " _I_ t was the same voice, the same cold, murderous voice that she had heard in Lockhart's office. Hope stumbled to a halt, clutching at the stone wall, listening with all her might, looking around, squinting up and down the dimly lit passageway.

"Hope?" Her friends had stopped and turned to look at her.

"It's that voice again! Shut up for a minute." Hope told them urgently.

"What voice?" Hermes asked frantically.

"Shut up!" Hope hissed, trying to listen.

" _So hungry... for so long..._ "

"Listen!" Hope ordered. Her three friends just stood there, watching her like she had gone out of her mind.

" _Kill... Time to kill..._ " The voice was growing fainter. Hope was sure it was moving away, moving upward. A mixture of fear and excitement gripped her as she stared at the dark ceiling; how could it be moving upward? Was it a phantom, to whom stone ceilings didn't matter?

"This way." She called to her friends as she began to run. Up the stairs, into the entrance hall... It was no good hoping to hear anything there, the babble of talk from the Halloween feast was echoing out of the Great Hall. Hope sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor, her friends clattering along behind her.

"Hope, what are we-?"

"SHH!" Hope snapped. Distantly, from the floor above, and growing fainter still, she heard the voice:

" _I smell blood... I SMELL BLOOD!_ " Hope's stomach lurched; the voice had risen to a shout and she felt like she was going to be sick at the sound of it.

"It's going to kill someone!" She cried. She ran up the next flight of steps three at a time, trying to listen over her own rapid footsteps and pounding heart. She hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Regina, Cassie and Hermes panting behind her, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last, deserted passage.

"What was that all about?" Regina demanded, wiping sweat off her face.

"There wasn't anything to hear." Cassie added with a huff, her hair falling out of it's previously perfect up-do.

But Hermes gave a sudden gasp, pointing down the corridor.

"Look!" Something was shining on the wall ahead.

They approached slowly, squinting through the darkness. Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches.

 _THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE._

"What's that thing hanging underneath?" Regina asked, a slight quiver in her voice. As they edged nearer, Hope almost slipped; there was a large puddle of water on the floor. Hermes grabbed her and set her upright again and together they inched toward the message, eyes fixed on a dark shadow beneath it.

All four of them realized what it was at once, and leaped backward with a splash. Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring. Cassie let out a shrill shriek, backpedaling even further and slipping in the water. Regina turned pale under her freckles and, if they weren't holding onto each other still, Hermes and Hope would've fallen over.

"Let's get out of here." Regina whispered urgently.

But it was too late. A rumble, as though of distant thunder, told them that the feast had just ended. From either end of the corridor where they stood came the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends.

The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Hope, Cassie, Hermes and Regina stood alone, in the middle of the corridor, still faced with the grisly sight in front of them. Somehow, Hope knew that her night was about to get even worse...

Aries Malfoy jumped forward in the crowd, his blue eyes wide as he stared at the scene.

"Enemies of the heir beware?" He read aloud, loudly. "You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

* * *

 **A/N Not much change from the original chapter, but it was another necessary chapter to move the plot along. I hope you enjoyed anyway!**


	38. An Ancient Legend

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

"What's going on here? What's going on?" Attracted, no doubt, by Aries's shout, Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror. "My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" He shrieked.

His eyes fell on the quartet, still frozen in shock in the middle of the corridor. He focused in on Hope, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

"You! You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll-."

"Argus!" Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by a number of other teachers. In seconds, he had swept past Hope, Hermes, Cassie and Regina and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket. "Come with me, Argus. You too, Potter, Granger, Malfoy, Weasley."

Lockhart stepped forward eagerly.

"My office is nearest, Headmaster, just upstairs. Please feel free."

"Thank you, Gilderoy." The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Filch and Professors McGonagall and Snape. The quartet of second-years followed numbly.

As they entered Lockhart's darkened office there was a flurry of movement across the walls; Harry saw several of the Lockharts in the pictures dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers. The real Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore laid Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. The four friends exchanged tense looks and then sank into chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching. The tip of Dumbledore's long, crooked nose was barely an inch from Mrs. Norris's fur. He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking.

Professor McGonagall was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions.

"It was definitely a curse that killed her. Probably the Transmogrifian Torture.I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very countercurse that would have saved her..." Lockhart's comments were punctuated by Filch's dry, racking sobs. He was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs. Norris, his face in his hands. As much as Hope detested Filch, she felt sorry for him. She, as a cat-lover herself, couldn't imagine if she had found Crookshanks hanging dead from a torch bracket.

Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs. Norris with his wand but nothing happened: She continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed.

"I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadogou." Lockhart was still talking, oblivious to everyone else's disinterest. "A series of attacks, the full story's in my autobiography, I was able to provide the townsfolk with various amulets, which cleared the matter up at once..." The photographs of Lockhart on the walls were all nodding in agreement as he talked. One of them had forgotten to remove his hair net.

At last Dumbledore straightened up.

"She's not dead, Argus." He said softly. Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had prevented.

"Not dead?" Filch choked out, looking through his fingers at Mrs. Norris. "But why's she all... all stiff and frozen?"

"She has been Petrified." Dumbledore reported.

"Ah! I thought so!" Lockhart agreed.

"But how, I cannot say..." Dumbledore continued, ignoring Lockhart.

"Ask her!" Filch shrieked, turning his blotched and tear-stained face to Hope.

"No second year could have done this. It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced-." Dumbledore began.

"She did it, she did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face purpling. "You saw what she wrote on the wall! She found... in my office... she knows I'm a...I'm a... She knows I'm a Squib!"

"I never touched that cat! And I don't care that you're a squib. I don't care if you're working part-time as a clown at birthday parties!" Hope protested, jumping to her feet.

"If I might speak, Headmaster." Snape put in from the shadows and Hope knew them she was doomed. "Potter and her friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was she in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn't she at the Halloween feast?"

The four friends all launched into an explanation about the deathday party, talking over each other frantically.

"There were hundreds of ghosts, they'll tell you we were there-."

"But why not join the feast afterward?" Snape questioned, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?" The other three looked at Hope in the least subtle way possible. She didn't think it would be in her best interest to tell everyone that she had been hearing voices no one else could hear, so she lied to the best of her ability.

"Have you ever been to a deathday party? I was feeling especially sick; we were going to walk around and see if our stomachs settled before we went to eat." Her voice was smooth and she thought she'd succeeded in selling her lie. But Snape looked at her with a smile and she knew that she had failed, at least to convince him.

"I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful. It might be a good idea if she were deprived of certain privileges until she is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel she should be taken off the Quidditch team until she is ready to be honest."

"Really, Severus." Professor McGonagall said sharply, "I see no reason to stop the girl playing Quidditch, on your own team no less. This cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter has done anything wrong."

Dumbledore was giving Hope a searching look. His twinkling light-blue gaze made her feel as though she were being X-rayed.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." He said firmly. Snape looked furious. So did Filch.

"My cat has been Petrified!" He shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishment!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus." Dumbledore soothed him patiently. "Professer Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it." Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep-.""

"Excuse me." Snape interrupted icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school." There was a very awkward pause after that.

"You may go," Dumbledore said to the quartet. They went, as quickly as they could without actually running.

When they were a floor up from Lockhart's office, they turned into an empty classroom and closed the door quietly behind them. Hope collasped ontop of a desk and squinted at her friends' darkened faces, all staring at her.

"D'you think I should have told them about that voice I heard?"

"No." Regina told her without hesitation. "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world." Something in Regina's voice made Hope ask:

"You do believe me, don't you?"

"Of course we do." Cassie put in quickly, sounding as though she thought she was talking to a mental patient. Hope rolled her eyes and looked imploringly at Hermes.

"It's a bit strange..." He began.

"I know it's strange. The whole thing is strange. What was that writing on the wall about? 'The Chamber Has Been Opened'. What's that supposed to mean? Besides a chamber being opened somewhere, I mean."

"You know, it sort of rings a bell." Regina admitted. "I think someone told me about a secret chamber at Hogwarts. It might've been Bill..."

A clock chimed somewhere.

"Midnight." Hope reported after counting the chimes. "We'd better go before Snape finds another crime to pin on us."

* * *

For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back. Hope had seen him scrubbing the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect; the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. And, when Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like 'breathing loudly' and 'looking happy'.

Gavin Weasley seemed very disturbed by Mrs. Norris's fate. According to Regina, he was an avid animal lover.

"But you haven't gotten to know Mrs. Norris. Honestly, we're much better off without her." Regina told him in an attempt at comfort. Gavin still didn't look like he felt any better so Regina continued: "Stuff like this doesn't happen often at Hogwarts." That was a lie, considering what had happened last year. "They'll catch the maniac that did it and get him out of here in no time. I just hope he's got time to petrify Filch before he's expelled. I'm only joking, Gav!" She added hurriedly, as her brother looked ready to bolt.

The attack had also had an effect on Hermes. It was quite usual for Hermes to spend a lot of time reading, but he was now doing almost nothing else. Nor could Hope, Cassie and Regina get much response from her when they asked what she was up to, and not until the following Wednesday did they find out.

Hope had been held back in Potions, where Snape made her stay back and scrape tubeworms off the desks. After a hurried lunch, she went upstairs to meet her friends in the library. A Hufflepuff boy saw her, turned and sped off in the opposite direction.

Hope found Cassie and Regina at the back of the library. Cassie was staring blankly at a textbook, braiding her hair with more attentiveness than she was giving the book, while Regina was measuring her History of Magic Homework. Professor Binns had asked for a three-foot-long composition on 'The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards'.

"I don't believe it, I'm still eight inches short." Regina huffed furiously, letting go of her parchment, which sprang back into a roll. "And Hermes's done four feet seven inches and his writing's tiny."

"Where is he?" Hope questioned. Cassie pointed along the shelves.

"In his happy place. I think he's trying to read the whole library before the holidays."

Hope told them about the Hufflepuff that had not-so-subtly avoided her. Neither girl seemed very concerned with it.

"Hufflepuff are strange. Mother says they're so good at Herbology because they like to experiment with herbs, if you know what I mean." Cassie told them in a hushed tone.

Hermes emerged from the shelves, looking irritable but finally ready to talk to them.

"All the copies of Hogwarts: A History have been taken out." He complained as he sank into a seat next to Hope. "And there's a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all those silly little Lockhart books that were required."

"Why do you want it again?" Hope asked.

"The same reason everyone else wants it. To read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets."

"What's the legend?" Hope asked quickly.

"That's just it. I can't remember and I can't find the legend anywhere else." Hermes told her, biting his lip.

"Hermes, let me read your composition." Regina begged.

"No, I won't." Hermes snapped, suddenly severe. "You've had ten days to finish it-."

"I only need another two inches, come on-." The bell rang.

Ravenclaws and Slytherins had once again been paired up for a class, so they said goodbye to a begging Regina and then Hope, Cassie and Hermes headed off to History of Magic.

History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. Ancient and shriveled, many people said he hadn't noticed he was dead. He had simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staffroom fire. His routine had not varied in the slightest since.

That day was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again. He had been speaking for half an hour when something happened that had never happened before: Hermes put up his hand. Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed.

"Mr... Er..."

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets."

Blaise Zabini, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance. Sally Smith's head came up off her arms and Terry Boot's elbow slipped off his desk. Professor Binns blinked.

"My subject is History of Magic. I deal with, facts, Mr. Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk snapping and continued: "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers-." He stuttered to a halt. Hermes's hand was waving in the air again.

"Mr. Grant?"

"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?" Professor Binns was looking at him in such amazement that Hope was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.

"Well... Yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Hermes as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale-."

But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns's every word, eyes wide and leaning forward in anticipation. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his. It seemed he was completely thrown by such an unusual show of interest.

"Oh, very well. Let me see... the Chamber of Secrets... You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago, the precise date is uncertain, by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution." He paused, gazed blearily around the room and continued: "For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school. Reliable historical sources tell us this much. But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

There was silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns's classes. There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more. Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed.

"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course. Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible." Hermes's hand was back in the air.

"Sir, what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control." The class exchanged nervous looks. Hope looked over at Cassie; it was no wonder the Slytherin house had a bad name. First Voldemort came from Slytherin, now there was some sort of monster that could only be controlled by a special Slytherin. "I tell you, the thing does not exist. There is no Chamber and no monster."

"But, sir." Sally Smith began, chewing on the end of her dark plait nervously. "If the Chamber can only be opened by Slytherin's true heir, no one else would be able to find it, would they?"

"Nonsense, Smythe." Professor Binns told her in an aggravated tone. "If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses haven't found the thing-."

"But, Professor." Padma Patil began eagerly. "You'd probably have to use Dark Magic to open it-."

"Just because a wizard doesn't use Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't, Miss Pennyfeather." Professor Binns snapped. "I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore-."

"But maybe you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn't-." Terry Boot started, but Professor Binns had had enough.

"That will do! It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built so much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history, to solid, believable, verifiable fact!"

And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual torpor.


	39. Signs

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

As the quartet shunted along the corridors, packed with other just as impatient students, they told Regina the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.

"I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony." Regina said at last as the story finished. "But I never knew he started all this pure-blood stuff. I wouldn't be in his House if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd've got the train straight back home..." She trailed off as she looked over at her Slytherin friends.

"This is the part where you say 'no offense'." Hope instructed.

"No offense."

"Gee, thanks."

Just then, Colin Creevey went past them.

"Hiya, Hope!"

"Hey, Colin." Hope responded automatically.

"Hope, Hope, a boy in my class has been saying you're-." But Colin was so small he couldn't fight against the tide of people bearing him toward the Great Hall; they heard him squeak: "See you, Hope!" Then he was gone.

"What's a boy in his class saying about you?" Hermes wondered.

"That I'm Slytherin's heir, I expect." Hope replied bitterly, her stomach dropping another inch or so as he suddenly remembered the way that Hufflepuff had run away from him at lunchtime.

"People here'll believe anything." Regina said in disgust.

The crowd thinned and they went into the next corridor without difficulty. They paused to talk; they would have to separate soon to drop their bags off in their own dormitories before dinner and they wouldn't be able to sit together then either.

"D'you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Regina asked Hermes.

"I don't know. Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs. Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be, well, human."

"Come on." Cassie urged them to keep walking and, as they rounded a corner, they found themselves at the end of the very corridor where the attack had happened. They stopped and looked. The scene was just as it had been that night, except that there was no stiff cat hanging from the torch bracket, and an empty chair stood against the wall bearing the message 'The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened'.

"That's where Filch has been keeping guard." Regina muttered. They looked at each other. The corridor was deserted and Cassie was smirk.

"Can't hurt to have a poke around." Hope agreed. With that, she dropped her bag and dropped to her hands and knees so that she could crawl along, searching for clues.

"Ah, yes, that doesn't look strange at all." Cassie told her sarcastically. But Hope had already found something.

"Scorch marks! Here... and here..."

"Come and look at this!" Hermes called.

Hope got up and crossed to the window next to the message on the wall. Hermes was pointing at the topmost pane, where around twenty spiders were scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long, silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed it in their hurry to get outside.

"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" Hermes asked wonderingly.

"No." Hope admitted. She looked over at Cassie, who caught her look and immediately took offense.

"Does my family strike you as one to study spiders?"

"Yeah, kind of."

"Well, we don't." Cassie huffed, obviously not having a better comeback.

"Regina?" Hope looked over her shoulder. Regina was standing well back and seemed to be fighting the impulse to run. "What's wrong?"

"I. Don't. Like. Spiders." Regina choked out.

"I never knew that." Hermes said in surprise. "You've used spiders in Potions loads of times."

"I don't mind them dead." Regina shot back, carefully looking anywhere but at the window. "I just don't like the way they move..."

Her friends, as friends naturally do, snickered at her. She glared at him, turning nearly as red as her hair.

"It's not funny! If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my... my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick. You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and..." She broke off, shuddering. Cassie and Hermes were obviously still trying not to laugh.

Feeling they had better get off the subject, Hope spoke up:

"Remember all that water on the floor? Where did that come from? Someone's mopped it up."

"It was about here." Regina said, recovering herself to walk a few paces past Filch's chair and pointing at a door.

"That's the girls' toilet." Cassie realized and they all looked at each other.

"Moaning Myrtle." The girls said aloud.

"Come on, let's have a look." Hope encouraged.

"But it's the girls toilet." Hermes protested in a whisper.

"There's no one in there." Hope assured him.

"But... It's the girls toilet." He repeated. "No boys allowed."

"Oh, come on." Hope grabbed his arm and tugged him along. Ignoring the large out of order sign, they opened the door. It was the gloomiest, most depressing bathroom Hope had ever set foot in; she remembered it vaguely from last year but it seemed have gotten even worse in her time avoiding it. Under a large, cracked, and spotted mirror were a row of chipped sinks. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders; the wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched and one of them was dangling off its hinges.

Cassie set off toward the end stall, her finger pressed to her lips to signal the others. When she reached it she said as politely as she could:

"Hello, Myrtle, how are you?" Moaning Myrtle was floating above a toilet tank, picking a spot on her chin.

"Ask her if she saw anything." Hermes whispered, looking around nervously.

"We wanted to ask-."

"I wish people would stop talking behind my back!" Myrtle cried, in a voice choked with tears. "I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead-."

"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you, darling." Cassie tried to salvage the situation.

"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!" Myrtle howled. "My life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!"

"We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately." Hope put in quickly. She didn't care if the girl was upset; she wanted answers. It wasn't like they had ruined a good mood; Myrtle only had one mood. "Because a cat was attacked right outside your front door on Halloween."

"I wasn't paying attention." Myrtle replied dramatically. "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm... that I'm..."

"Already dead." Regina tried to help.

Myrtle gave a tragic sob, rose up in the air, turned over, and dived headfirst into the toilet, splashing water all over them and vanishing from sight, although from the direction of her muffled sobs, she had come to rest somewhere in the U-bend.

"Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle..." Cassie mused. They moved to leave; there was no reason on Earth to stay there any longer. Hope had barely closed the door on Myrtle's gurgling sobs when a loud voice made all four of them jump.

"Regina!" Percy Weasley had stopped dead at the head of the stairs, prefect badge agleam, an expression of complete shock on his face. "What were you-."

"Going to the bathroom." Regina replied instantly.

"All four of you?"

"There are multiple stalls."

"He's a boy."

"Well spotted, Percy. I guess that's why they made you prefect." Regina gave a dramatic bow; the others tried to hide their snickers. Percy swelled with anger.

"Get away from there." He ordered, striding toward them and starting to bustle them along, flapping his arms. "Don't you care what this looks like? Coming back here while everyone's at dinner-."

"Why shouldn't we be here?" Regina asked hotly, stopping short and glaring at her brother. "Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat!"

"That's what I told Gavin, but he still seems to think you're going to be expelled. I've never seen him so upset! You might think of him! All the first years are thoroughly overexcited by this business-."

"You don't care about Gavin!" Regina suddenly yelled. "How many conversations have you had with him since you started Hogwarts? Or with Fred? Or George? Or me? You're just worried I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy-."

"Five points from Gryffindor!" Percy snapped, fingering his prefect badge. "And I hope it teaches you a lesson!"

"You're not mum! Stop acting all important!" Regina snarled.

"But I will write to mum!"

"And tell her what? We had an argument? I'm shaking." She responded sarcastically.

"Five more points!"

"You're so unfair!" She whined.

"Do you want another five off?" Percy threatened.

"Fine!" Regina yelled. With that, she turned on her heel and hurried off. The other three didn't hesitate to take off after her, trying to pretend as though they hadn't heard the entire argument.

When Regina finally stopped, she slammed herself down on one of the moving staircases. The other three hurried to get on and sit down themselves before it swung around to connect with another staircase. There was a very pregnant pause before Hermes spoke:

"Who can it be, though? Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"

"Let's think." Regina said in mock puzzlement. "Who do we know who thinks Muggle-borns are scum?"

"Pansy." They said immediately.

"Little bit younger, little bit blonder." Regina urged. Cassie looked at her, appalled.

"Aries? No, he wouldn't."

"You heard him!" Regina snapped at her. She put on a voice eerily like Aries's for her next line: "You'll be next, Mudbloods."

"He's not doing this!"

"Daddy's little prince comes to school and suddenly this happens? Don't tell me that's coincidence." Regina snarled back.

"It is!" Cassie cried, looking desperate to defend her brother.

"Could your family be the heirs of Slytherin, though?" Hermes asked as diplomatically as he could. Cassie whirled on him.

"Of course not! I would know!"

"But, Cassie..." Hope began slowly. "You said it yourself... Your father's been grooming Aries for something."

"To work in the Ministry, not release some foul, evil creature from some dark dungeon!"

"Well, baby steps." Regina muttered.

"It was your house elf that warned me too." Hope reminded her.

"But..." Cassie trailed off, no more defenses coming to mind.

"But how do we prove any of it? Guilt or innocence." Hope added the last part quickly, off Cassie's look.

"There might be a way." Hermes started quietly. Everyone looked at him expectantly. "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect-."

"If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" Regina asked irritably. Hermes shot him a look.

"What we need is to get Aries to talk to us without realizing he's talking to us. All we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion."

"What's that?"

"Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago-."

"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" Regina asked.

"It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! Who does he hang around?" Hermes asked Cassie.

"Pansy and anyone she hangs around."

"We can change into Pansy, Millicent Bulstrode, Crabe and Goyle. No one would know it was us. Aries would probably tell us anything."

"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me. What if we were stuck looking like them forever?" Regina frowned at the thought.

"It wears off after a while." Hermes explained, waving his wand impatiently. "But getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library." There was only one way to get out a book from the Restricted Section: you needed a signed note of permission from a teacher.

"But any teacher would immediately know what we were up to." Cassie reminded them, sounding slightly more on-board with the plan than before.

"I think that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance..."

"Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that! They'd have to be really thick..."

* * *

Lockhart. It always seemed to boil down to Lockhart that year. Hermes had a signed note to get the book within seconds; all he had to do was ask for it so he could understand a part of one of Lockhart's books better.

As Lockhart handed the note back to Hermes, he turned his attention to Hope.

"Tomorrow's the first Quidditch match of the season, I believe? Slytherin against Gryffindor, is it not? I hear you're a useful player. I was a Seeker, too. I was asked to try for the National Squad, but preferred to dedicate my life to the eradication of the Dark Forces. Still, if ever you feel the need for a little private training, don't hesitate to ask. Always happy to pass on my expertise to less able players..." Hope made an indistinct noise in her throat, bit back words that would earn her a detention, and then hurried off after her friends.

They got the book from a suspicious Madam Pince and then, within five minutes, had barricaded themselves in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Hermes was against the idea, but it was the best place, as no one would go in and look around. While they were there, they could hear Moaning Myrtle crying nosily in her stall, but they ignored her and she them.

Hermes opened _Moste Potente_ Potions carefully and the four of them bent over the damp-spotted pages. It was clear from a glance why it belonged in the Restricted Section. Some of the potions had effects almost too gruesome to think about, and there were some very unpleasant illustrations, which included a man who seemed to have been turned inside out and a witch sprouting several extra pairs of arms out of her head.

"Here it is." Hermes said excitedly as he found the page headed _The Polyjuice Potion_. It was decorated with drawings of people halfway through transforming into other people. Hope sincerely hoped the artist had imagined the looks of intense pain on their faces. "This is the most complicated potion I've ever seen. Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, and knotgrass... Well, they're easy enough, they're in the student store-cupboard, we can help ourselves... Oooh, look, powdered horn of a bicorn... don't know where we're going to get that... shredded skin of a boomslang... that'll be tricky, too... and of course a bit of whoever we want to change into."

Everyone looked at him.

"Define 'a bit'." Hope commanded tersely.

"I'm not drinking anything with Pansy Parkinson's toenail in it." Regina informed him matter-of-factly. Cassie dry-heaved at the mental image that provided her with.

Hermes continued as though he had heard nothing:

"We don't have to worry about that yet, though, because we add those bits last..."

"Again, define 'bits'." Hope pleaded.

"We'll have to steal a lot..." Hermes murmured.

"Is Hermes Goody-Two-Shoes Granger really up to stealing?" Cassie asked, done dry-heaving. Hermes slammed the book shut.

"Hermes Goody-Two-Shoes Granger doesn't want to be the first mudblood attacked!" He hissed. They all fell silent, looking around at each other. Regina and Cassie were pure-bloods and Hope was a half-blood. They were as safe as they could be with a monster lurking around. But Hermes... Hope squared her shoulders.

"I have the invisibility cloak and the map. We can steal anything."


	40. The Golden Snitch

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

The day of her first Quidditch game, Hope wasn't feeling so good. Nerves were making her head buzz and her stomach churn. What if she really wasn't any good? What if she messed up her team's chance at winning? Cassie was practically shaking as they sat together for breakfast; Hope selfishly liked that. Even confident Cassie was nervous. It made her feel better about herself, even though she was sympathetic to her friend.

As eleven-o-clock neared, the school made it's way down to the stadium. It was a muggy sort of day with a hint of thunder. It didn't exactly put Hope in good spirits as she headed for the locker room with Cassie. Hermes and Regina caught them on their way to wish them good luck. Regina sported the Gryffindor colors to cheer on her brothers, as Fred and George were the beaters for the Gryffindor team, but she seemed sincere enough.

The pep talk in the locker room wasn't exactly cheerful either. Hope was told, in no uncertain terms, that she was going to get that snitch or die trying. Coming from someone else, it might've been taken as a joke. But Flint didn't joke.

Before the game, Madam Hooch made Flint and Wood of the Gryffindor team shake hands before the game. They did, giving each other threatening stares and gripping each others hands harder than necessary.

"On my whistle. Three... two... one..." With a roar from the crowd to speed them upward, the fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. Hope flew higher than any of them, looking around desperately for the snitch.

A heavy black Bludger came pelting towards her; she avoided it so narrowly that she felt it ruffle her ponytail. One of the Slytherin beaters, Peregrine Derrick, shot past her to beat it away. He gave it a powerful whack towards Angelina Johnson of the Gryffindor team, but the Bludger changed direction in midair and shot straight for Hope again. She dropped quickly to avoid it and Peregrine managed to hit it hard toward Katie Bell.

Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Hope's head. Hope put on a burst of speed and zoomed toward the other end of the field. She could hear the Bludger whistling along behind him. What was going on? Bludgers never concentrated on one player like this; it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible...

As if it was magnetically attracted to Hope, it pelted after her once more and she was forced to fly off at full speed.

It had started to rain; Hope felt heavy drops fall onto her face, splattering onto her glasses. She didn't have a clue what was going on in the rest of the game until she heard Lee Jordan, who was commentating, say:

"Gryffindor lead, fifty points to zero."

The beaters were flying so close to Hope on either side, trying to keep the Bludger away from her, that she had no chance at seeing anything else, let alone a tiny snitch. Even Fred and George, the opposing team's beaters, were trying to beat it away from Hope. Granted, they sent it spiraling towards Slytherin players, but she appreciated the effort nonetheless. Still, she had no chance at catching the snitch and proving she was valuable to the team with beaters hovering around her. She frantically waved her arm at Peregrine. He looked at her in confusion but got the message. There was a moment of hesitation before he dropped down and left her alone.

The rain was falling more heavily now, but Hope could still hear the telltale whoosh of the Bludger behind her. Higher and higher Hope climbed; she looped and swooped, spiraled, zigzagged, and rolled. Slightly dizzy, she nevertheless kept her eyes wide open. Rain was speckling her glasses and ran up her nostrils as she hung upside down, avoiding another fierce dive from the Bludger. She could hear laughter from the crowd; she knew she must look very stupid, but the rogue Bludger was heavy and couldn't change direction as quickly as she could. She began a kind of roller-coaster ride around the edges of the stadium, squinting through the silver sheets of rain to the Slytherin goal posts, where Cassie was blocking a quaffle.

A whistling in Hope's ear told her the Bludger had just missed her again; she turned right over and sped in the opposite direction. She pulled her broom to a sudden stop, causing the Bludger to speed past her. She had seen something... Something shiny... She spotted the snitch, hovering, getting pelted by rain. It wasn't that far away and the Gryffindor seeker was searching the other end of the stadium.

 _WHAM._

She had stayed still a second too long. The Bludger had hit her at last, smashed into her elbow and Hope felt her arm break. Dimly, dazed by the searing pain in her arm that was so overwhelming that she wanted to puke, she slid sideways on her rain-drenched broom, one knee still crooked over it, her right arm dangling useless at her side.

The Bludger came pelting back for a second attack, this time aiming at her face. Hope swerved out of the way, one idea firmly lodged in her numb brain: win. If she was going to have to deal with a broken arm, she was going to have a victory alongside it.

She sped for the snitch, gripping the broom with her legs and reaching out with her good hand. The Bludger whistled right behind her and she heard her broom crack and snap upon impact. She was thrown forward and, as if in slow motion, she saw herself falling towards the ground yards below.

With a splattering thud, she hit the ground and rolled. Her arm still hung at her side as she rolled onto her knees, but that wasn't her biggest concern. She gagged and spit out the Snitch that she had caught in her mouth. Smiling, dazed, she held up the snitch to the crowd and the game was signaled as being over.

"We won." Hope said with a hysterical sounding laugh. Then she fell face-first into the mud and fainted.

* * *

When she came to, rain was still pouring down on her face and someone was leaning over her. She saw a glitter of teeth.

"Not you..." She groaned.

"Doesn't know what she's saying." Lockhart said loudly to the anxious crowd pressing around them. Some of her team were surrounding them, but Hope could only really pick out the faces of her best friends and Regina's brothers. "Not to worry, Hope. I'm about to fix your arm."

"No, no!" She protested. She tried to sit up to crawl away, but the pain was terrible. She heard a familiar clicking noise nearby. "I don't want a photo of this, Colin!"

"Lie back, Hope. It's a simple charm I've used countless times-." Lockhart began.

"Why can't I just go to the hospital wing?"

"She should really, Professor."

"I'll take her."

"I'll carry her."

"She'll be fine." The entire crowd seemed to be on her side, but Lockhart brushed all their protests and offers off.

"Stand back." Lockhart told them all dramatically, rolling up his jade-green sleeves.

"No, don't!" Hope tried to protest, but Lockhart was twirling his wand and a second later had directed it straight at her arm. A strange and unpleasant sensation started at her shoulder and spread all the way down to her fingertips. It felt as though her arm was being deflated. She didn't dare look at what was happening. She had shut her eyes, her face turned away from her arm, but her worst fears were realized as the people above her gasped and Colin Creevey began clicking away madly. Her arm didn't hurt anymore... nor did it feel remotely like an arm.

"Ah." Lockhart said with a nervous laugh. "Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is, the bones are no longer broken. That's the thing to bear in mind. So, Hope, just toddle up to the hospital wing. Ah, Mr. Granger, Miss Weasley, Miss Malfoy, would you escort him? And Madam Pomfrey will be able to, er, tidy you up a bit."

As Hope got to her feet, with Hermes and Regina's help, she felt strangely lopsided. Taking a deep breath, she looked down at her right side. What she saw nearly made her pass out again. Poking out of the end of her robes was what looked like a thick, flesh-colored rubber glove. She tried to move his fingers. Nothing happened. Lockhart hadn't mended Hope's bones. He had removed them.

* * *

Madam Pomfrey wasn't pleased.

"You should have come straight to me!" She raged, holding up the sad, limp remainder of what, half an hour before, had been a working arm. "I can mend bones in a second. But growing them back-."

"You will be able to, won't you?" Hope asked desperately. She didn't want to be known as 'Gimpy' for the rest of her life.

"I'll be able to, certainly, but it will be painful." Madam Pomfrey told her grimly, throwing her a pair of pajamas. "You'll have to stay the night..."

Hermes waited outside the curtain drawn around Hope's bed while Regina and Cassie helped her into her pajamas. It took a while to stuff the rubbery, boneless arm into a sleeve, even without Regina's comments about how it looked like a sad, raw piece of chicken.

"How can you stick up for Lockhart now, Cassie, eh?" Regina demanded as she pulled Hope's limp fingers through the cuff. "If Hope had wanted de-boning, she would have asked."

"Anyone can make a mistake. It doesn't hurt anymore, does it?"

"No. But it doesn't do anything else either." Hope picked up her boneless arm in one hand shook it in Cassie's face.

Madam Pomfrey returned, holding a large bottle of something labeled Skele-Gro. She motioned for Hope to get into bed, which she did, her arm flapping over the side of the bed pointlessly.

"You're in for a rough night." She warned, pouring out a steaming beakerful and handing it to her. Hermes had come around the curtain to watch. "Regrowing bones is a nasty business."

So was taking the Skele-Gro. It burned Hope's mouth and throat as it went down, making her cough and splutter. Still tut-tutting about dangerous sports and inept teachers, Madam Pomfrey retreated, leaving them alone. Hermes helped Hope gulp down some water while the girls paced by the end of the bed.

"I want to know how fixed that Bludger." Cassie seethed.

"We can add that to the list of questions to ask your brother." Hope told her. Cassie glared, but didn't say anything. Madam Pomfrey came back over with blankets in her arms.

"This girl needs rest; she's got thirty-three bones to regrow! Out! OUT!" And Hope was left alone, with nothing to distract her from the stabbing pains in her limp arm.

* * *

 **A/N Although her sports career differs from Harry's, I still wanted that iconic 'snitch caught in their mouth' moment (as we all know how important that is in the final book). I hope you enjoyed!**


	41. Late Night Chats

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hours and hours later, Hope woke quite suddenly in the pitch blackness and gave a small yelp of pain: her arm now felt full of large splinters. For a second, she thought that was what had woken her. Then, with a thrill of horror, she realized that someone was sponging her forehead in the dark.

Her fist good hand swung up in a backhand that knocked the hand away. She grabbed her glasses and shoved them onto her face in time to see Dobby the house-elf collecting the sponge from where it had been knocked to the floor. A single tear was running down his long, pointed nose.

"Dobby!" She hissed through clenched teeth. She was going to strangle him. Once she had use of both hands, that was.

"Hope Potter came back to school." Dobby whispered miserably. "Dobby warned and warned Hope Potter. Ah, ma'am, why didn't you heed Dobby? Why didn't Hope Potter go back home when he missed the train?"

Hope smacked Dobby's hand away as he tried to sponge her forehead again and glared at him in the dark. His tennis-ball sized eyes looked back at her, looking like a kicked puppy. But she didn't relent as a realization crept into her mind.

"You stopped the barrier from letting us through!"

"Indeed yes, ma'am." Dobby nodded his head vigorously, ears flapping. "Dobby hid and watched for Hope Potter and sealed the gateway and Dobby had to iron his hands afterward." He showed Hope ten long, bandaged fingers. "But Dobby didn't care, ma'am, for he thought Hope Potter was safe and never did Dobby dream that Hope Potter would get to school another way!" He was rocking backward and forward, shaking his ugly head.

"Of course I found another way. I told you: Hogwarts is my home."

"Dobby was so shocked when he heard Hope Potter was back at Hogwarts, he let his master's dinner burn! Such a flogging Dobby never had, ma'am..."

"You nearly got Regina and me ex-!" She stopped; she didn't want to give him any more ideas on how to ruin her life. "You'd better get lost before my bones come back, Dobby, or I'll strangle you." Dobby smiled weakly.

"Dobby is used to death threats, ma'am. Dobby gets them five times a day at home." He blew his nose on a corner of the filthy pillowcase he wore, looking so pathetic that Hope felt her anger ebb away in spite of herself.

"Why are you doing this?" She whispered.

"Because Hope Potter must go home! Dobby thought his Bludger would be enough to make-."

"Your Bludger?" Hope echoed, anger rising once more. Kicked puppy or not, she had almost died because of him. She grabbed Dobby by his pillowcase and yanked him onto the bed. Crookshanks probably weighed more than him; it wasn't hard to do with just one arm. "What d'you mean, your Bludger? You made that Bludger try and kill me?"

"Not kill you, ma'am, never kill you!" Dobby told her, looking shocked. "Dobby wants to save Hope Potter's life! Better sent home, grievously injured, than remain here, ma'am! Dobby only wanted Hope Potter hurt enough to be sent home!"

"Oh, is that all?" Hope asked sarcastically. Dobby nodded vigorously. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you wanted me sent home in piece?"

"Ah, if Hope Potter only knew!" Dobby groaned, more tears dripping onto his ragged pillowcase. "If she knew what she means to us, to the lowly, the enslaved, we dregs of the magical world! Dobby remembers how it was when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was at the height of his powers, ma'am! We house-elves were treated like vermin, sir! Of course, Dobby is still treated like that, ma'am." He admitted, drying his face on the pillowcase. "But mostly, ma'am, life has improved for my kind since you triumphed over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Hope Potter survived and the Dark Lord's power was broken and it was a new dawn, ma'am, and Hope Potter shone like a beacon of hope for those of us who thought the Dark days would never end, ma'am... And now, at Hogwarts, terrible things are to happen, are perhaps happening already, and Dobby cannot let Hope Potter stay here now that history is to repeat itself, now that the Chamber of Secrets is open once more-." Dobby froze, horror struck, then grabbed Hope's water jug from his bedside table and cracked it over his own head, toppling out of sight.

A second later, he crawled back onto the bed, cross-eyed, muttering:

"Bad Dobby, very bad Dobby..."

"Dobby! I'm not some savior. I'm a twelve year old girl who does not appreciate getting a demented ball sicced on me by a house-elf!" She hissed. Then she backtracked, squinting at Dobby. "So there is a Chamber of Secrets? And it's been opened before? Tell me, Dobby!"

She seized the elf's bony wrist as Dobby's hand inched toward the water jug and then knocked the nearest tray out of the way before he got another other ideas. She needed him conscious and not brain-damaged if she was going to get any answers.

"Listen to me: I'm not Muggle-born. How can I be in danger from the Chamber?"

"Ah, m'am, ask no more, ask no more of poor Dobby." The elf stammered, his eyes huge in the dark. "Dark deeds are planned in this place, but Hope Potter must not be here when they happen. Go home, Hope Potter, go home. Hope Potter must not meddle in this, ma'am, 'tis too dangerous-."

"You got me injured three times. Fireplace. Wall. Ball. I'm asking more question." Hope told him dryly. "Now: who is it, Dobby? Who's opened it? Who opened it last time?"

"Dobby can't, ma'am, Dobby can't, Dobby mustn't tell!" The elf squealed. "Go home, Hope Potter, go home!"

"I'm not going anywhere! One of my best friends is Muggle-born; he'll be first in line if the Chamber really has been opened-."

"Hope Potter risks her own life for her friends!" Dobby moaned in a kind of miserable ecstasy. "So noble! So valiant! But she must save herself, she must, Hope Potter must not-." Dobby suddenly froze, his bat ears quivering. Hope heard it, too. There were footsteps coming down the passageway outside. "Dobby must go!"

"No, wait-." There was a loud crack and Hope's fist was suddenly clenched on thin air.

She slumped back into bed, tossing her glasses back onto the bedside table, her eyes on the dark doorway to the hospital wing as the footsteps drew nearer. In the next moment, Dumbledore was backing into the dormitory, wearing a long woolly dressing gown and a nightcap. He was carrying one end of what looked like a statue. Professor McGonagall appeared a second later, carrying its feet. Together, they heaved it onto a bed.

"Get Madam Pomfrey." Dumbledore whispered and Professor McGonagall hurried past the end of Hope's bed and out of sight. Hope lay quite still, pretending to be asleep. She heard urgent voices and then Professor McGonagall swept back into view, closely followed by Madam Pomfrey, who was pulling a cardigan on over her nightdress. She heard a sharp intake of breath.

"What happened?" Madam Pomfrey whispered to Dumbledore, bending over the statue on the bed.

"Another attack. Minerva found him on the stairs."

"There was a bunch of grapes next to him." Professor McGonagall said. "We think he was trying to sneak up here to visit Potter."

Hope's stomach gave a horrible lurch. Slowly and carefully, she raised herself a few inches so she could look at the statue on the bed. A ray of moonlight lay across its staring face. It was Colin Creevey. His eyes were wide and his hands were stuck up in front of him, holding his camera.

"Petrified?" Madam Pomfrey whispered.

"Yes." Professor McGonagall returned. "But I shudder to think... If Albus hadn't been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate... Who knows what might have..." The three of them stared down at Colin.

Then Dumbledore leaned forward and wrenched the camera out of Colin's rigid grip.

"You don't think he managed to get a picture of his attacker?" Professor McGonagall asked eagerly. Dumbledore didn't answer. He opened the back of the camera.

"Good gracious!" Madam Pomfrey cried as a jet of steam hissed out of the camera. Hope, three beds away, caught the acrid smell of burnt plastic. "Melted. All melted..."

"What does this mean, Albus?" Professor McGonagall asked urgently.

"It means that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again." Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand to her mouth. Professor McGonagall stared at Dumbledore.

"But, Albus … surely... who?"

"The question is not who." Dumbledore corrected, his eyes on Colin. "The question is how."

And from what Hope could see of Professor McGonagall's shadowy face, she didn't understand this any better than Hope did.

* * *

 **A/N Not much difference from the original scene in the books, but it's just one of those necessary filler/info-dump chapters. Hope you enjoyed anyway!**


	42. Extracurricular Activities

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hope didn't sleep at all after that. When the sun rose the next morning, she was still wide-awake and thinking. The Chamber had been opened. Muggle-borns were in danger. She longed for last year, when all that had to do was get a fancy rock before someone else did. It had seemed simpler then, even if they all nearly died at the ripe old age of eleven.

Colin's bed had been blocked off with curtains, but it didn't stop the mental image from popping up in Hope's head every couple minutes. Poor Colin... Petrified, attacked by something no doubt horrid and ugly.

She didn't speak a word to Madam Pomfrey as she had her arm checked over. If Madam Pomfrey noticed her sullen silence, she didn't say a word about it.

"All in order." She said as Hope clumsily fed herself porridge left-handed. "When you've finished eating, you may leave."

As soon as possible, Hope hurried out of the hospital wing and down to her dormitory. She snatched the Marauder's map from her trunk, trying to work around Crookshanks. He was either so happy she was back he wanted to annoy her or so angry she hadn't been there he wanted to do the same thing.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The map appeared and it only took a moment for Hope to locate the names of her friends, crammed together in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "Mischief managed." With the map blank again, she stuffed it back inside her trunk and ran for the abandoned bathroom.

When she entered the bathroom, she heard voices coming from a locked stall. She closed the door behind her and walked over it.

"It's me." She called. There was a clunk, a splash, and a gasp from within the stall and she saw Hermes's brown eye peering through the keyhole.

"Hope! You gave us such a fright. Here, come in. How's your arm?"

"Fine." Hope assured her absentmindedly, squeezing into the stall to join the other three. An old cauldron was perched on the toilet and a crackling from under the rim told her they had lit a fire beneath it. She wasn't sure if she was impressed or disgusted by it.

"We'd've come to meet you, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion." Regina explained as Hope, with difficulty, locked the stall again. "We've decided this is the safest place to hide it."

Hope started to tell them about Colin, but Hermes interrupted.

"We already know. We heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Flitwick this morning. That's why we decided we'd better get going-."

"The sooner we get a confession out of Aries, the better." Regina cut in.

"Or proof of innocence." Cassie told her firmly.

"Yeah, keep dreaming, Rich Girl."

"You want to start comparing money, Regina?" Cassie shot back.

"There's something else." Hope cut in before a fist-fight could break out in the stall. "Dobby came to visit me in the middle of the night." Hope told them everything Dobby had told her, or hadn't told her, more accurately.

"Your house elf knows a lot of things..." Regina muttered, casting a sideways glance at Cassie, who was looking more uncomfortable by the minute. "Wish Dobby'd told you what kind of monster's in there, though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking around the school."

"Maybe it can make itself invisible." Hermes suggested, prodding leeches to the bottom of the cauldron. "Or maybe it can disguise itself. Pretend to be a suit of armor or something. I've read about Chameleon Ghouls-."

"You read too much, Hermes." Regina interrupted, pouring dead lacewings on top of the leeches. He crumpled up the empty lacewing bag and looked at Hope. "So Dobby stopped us from getting on the train and broke your arm... She shook his head. "You know what, Hope? If he doesn't stop trying to save your life he's going to kill you."

* * *

The news that Colin Creevey had been attacked and was now lying as though dead in the hospital wing had spread through the entire school by Monday morning. The air was suddenly thick with rumor and suspicion. The first years were now moving around the castle in tight-knit groups, as though scared they would be attacked if they ventured forth alone.

Gavin Weasley, who was dorm-mates with Colin, was distraught beyond comfort, though it didn't stop Regina from trying. Fred and George tried to cheer him up by jumping out from behind corners and scaring him, but that stopped when Percy and Regina, in a rare moment of teamwork, told them they would write home to their mother and tell her the twins were giving Gavin nightmares.

Meanwhile, hidden from the teachers, a roaring trade in talismans, amulets, and other protective devices was sweeping the school. Nadine Longbottom bought a large, evil-smelling green onion, a pointed purple crystal and a rotting newt tail before the other second-years pointed out that he was in no danger. He was a pureblood, after all, and therefore unlikely to be attacked.

"They went for Filch first." Nadine reminded them, her round face fearful. "And everyone knows I'm almost a Squib."

* * *

In the second week of December Professor McGonagall came around as usual, collecting names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. Hope, Hermes, Cassie and Regina signed up at once; Cassie knew that Aries was staying over the holidays and they decided it was the prefect time to test their polyjuice potion.

Unfortunately, the potion was only half finished. They still needed some ingredients from Snape's private store. Not ones to easily be deterred, they ate a fast dinner in the Great Hall one night and then, as casually as possible, headed off. Hope had her invisibility cloak and Marauders Map in her bag. They walked, in sight, down to the dungeons but then threw on the cloak and crept down into Snape's office.

Regina was given the Marauders Map and told to keep watch. Hope picked the lock on the cabinet they needed and Hermes frantically piled ingredients into the bag Cassie held open.

"What if he notices things are missing?" Hermes asked as they prepared to shut the cabinet and leave.

"He can't trace it back to us." Cassie tried to reassure him.

"But-."

"Peeves incoming." Regina warned, looking up from the map with an expression of both terror and annoyance.

"Quick fix, then." Hope grabbed the top of the cabinet and pulled. It slammed down and crashed, everything inside breaking.

"You just broke school property!" Hermes hissed.

"Snape's property." Hope corrected.

"Peeves incoming much faster." Regina warned urgently. The quartet ducked under the cloak as Peeves came into the room, cackling with mischief as he saw the broken cabinet.

"Someone was naught, naughty..." He cackled. The quartet snuck out of the room, trying to keep their footsteps quiet. They had to dodge Snape in the corridor and contain their laughter when he started yelling at Peeves.

Back in the safety of the girls bathroom, Hermes added the new ingredients and began to stir it feverishly.

"It'll be ready in two weeks." He announced happily.

"And then we'll save the school again." Regina beamed.

* * *

A week later, the group was walking across the entrance hall when they saw a small knot of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment that had just been pinned up. They went to investigate and saw it was an announcement for a dueling club, set to meet for the first time that night.

"Shall we go?" Regina asked eagerly. The others were all for it, so at eight-o-clock that night, the four of them went back to the Great Hall. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety black once more and most of the school seemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying their wands and looking excited.

"I wonder who will be teaching us." Hermes said as they edged their way through the chattering crowd. "Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young. Maybe it'll be him."

"As long as it's not-." Hope began, but she ended on a groan: Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Snape, wearing his usual black. Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called:

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions. For full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape. He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry. You'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Regina muttered in Hope's ear. She suppressed a smirk.

Snape's upper lip was curling. Hope wondered why Lockhart was still smiling; if Snape had been looking at her like that she'd have been running as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position." Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that." Hope murmured, watching Snape baring his teeth.

"One... two... three..." Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent. Snape cried:

"Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall and slid down it to sprawl on the floor. Some students started cheering. Cassie danced nervously on her tiptoes.

"Do you think he's all right?"

"Who cares?"

Lockhart was getting unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.

"Well, there you have it!" He said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm. As you see, I've lost my wand... Ah, thank you, Miss Patil. Yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy. However, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..." Snape was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said: "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me."

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Lockhart teamed Nadine with Justin Finch-Fletchley, but Snape reached Hope and Regina first.

"Time to split up the dream team, I think." He sneered. "Weasley, you can partner Finnigan. Granger, with Goyle. Malfoy, with Bulstrode. Potter, with Parkinson."

"Face your partners!" Lockhart called from the platform. "And bow!"

Hope and Pansy barely inclined their heads, not taking their eyes off each other.

"Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents. Only to disarm them. We don't want any accidents. One... two... three!"

Hope swung her wand high, but Pansy had already started on 'two': her spell hit Hope so hard she felt as though she'd been hit over the head with a saucepan. She stumbled, but everything still seemed to be working and wasting no more time, Hope pointed her wand straight at Pansy and shouted:

"Expelliarmus!" The jet of red light knocked Pansy off her feet and onto her butt with a thump. Hope started to smirk, victory clear, but Pansy wasn't done and moved her wand back into position before she even moved herself.

"Tarantallegra!" Hope's legs started to jerk around out of her control in a kind of quickstep.

"Stop! Stop!" Lockhart cried in alarm, but Snape took charge.

"Finite Incantatem!" Hope's feet stopped dancing and she looked around.

A haze of greenish smoke was hovering over the scene. Both Nadine and Justin were lying on the floor, panting. Regina was holding up an ashen-faced Seamus Finnigan, apologizing for whatever her broken wand had done. Hermes had gotten out of his fight with Goyle seemingly unscathed, but he looked a little disturbed. But Cassie and Millicent Bulstrode were still moving; Millicent had Cassie in a headlock and Cassie was whimpering in pain. Both their wands lay forgotten on the floor.

Hope leaped forward and pulled Millicent off so Cassie could crawl away. It was difficult: she was a lot bigger than she was.

"Dear, dear..." Lockhart murmured, skittering through the crowd, looking at the aftermath of the duels. "Up you go, Macmillan... Careful there, Miss Fawcett... Pinch it hard, it'll stop bleeding in a second, Boot. I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells." He glanced at Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away. "Let's have a volunteer pair. Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you-."

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart." Snape interrupted, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox." Nadine's round, pink face went pinker. "How about Parkinson and Potter?" Snape suggested with a twisted smile.

"Excellent idea!" Lockharted gestured Hope and Pansy into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them room. "Now, Hope. When Pansy points her wand at you, you do this." He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying: "Whoops. My wand is a little overexcited.

Snape moved closer to Pansy, bent down and whispered something in her ear. Pansy smirked, too. Hope looked up nervously at Lockhart and said:

"Professor, could you show me that blocking thing again?"

"Scared?" Pansy whispered, so that Lockhart couldn't hear her.

"You wish." Hope snarled out of the corner of her mouth.

Lockhart cuffed Harry merrily on the shoulder.

"Just do what I did, Hope!"

"What, drop my wand?" But Lockhart wasn't listening.

"Three... two... one... go!" He shouted.

Pansy raised her wand quickly, but Hope was faster. She had remembered a spell she'd read about in Grimmauld Place. She cast the spell as quickly as she could and, whatever spell Pansy had been trying, merely made a duck pop out of the end of her wand. The room exploded with laughter and duck noises, but Hope couldn't help but notice Snape twitching, as if there was a bad memory associated with that particular spell.

The spell wore off, however, and before Hope could react, Pansy shrieked:

"Serpensortia!" The end of her wand exploded. Hope watched, aghast, as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between them and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Potter." Snape said lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Hope standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it..."

"Allow me!" Lockhart shouted. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

Hope wasn't sure what made her do it. She wasn't even aware of deciding to do it. All she knew was that her legs were carrying her forward as though she was on casters and that she had shouted stupidly at the snake:

"Leave him alone!" And miraculously, inexplicably, the snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick, black garden hose, its eyes now on Hope. Hope felt the fear drain out of her. She knew the snake wouldn't attack anyone now, though how she knew it, she couldn't have explained. She looked up at Justin, grinning, expecting to see Justin looking relieved, or puzzled, or even grateful. But certainly not angry and scared.

"What do you think you're playing at?" He shouted, and before Hope could say anything, Justin had turned and stormed out of the hall.

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. Snape, too, was looking at Hope in an unexpected way: it was a shrewd and calculating look and Hope didn't like it. She was also dimly aware of an ominous muttering all around the walls.

Then she felt a tugging on the back of his robes.

"Come on." Regina's voice whispered in her ear. "Move, come on." The two fled the hall, with Hermes and Cassie sprinting after them.


	43. Beware the Heir

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Her friends wouldn't talk to her until Regina had steered her into an empty classroom and pushed her in a chair. Cassie slammed the door shut and then they all gathered around her, looking at her like she had just kicked their puppy.

"You're a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?" Regina demanded.

"I'm a what?" Hope asked dumbly. No matter how much she tried to fit into the magical world, it seemed she always had more to learn and look like an idiot not knowing in the mean-time.

"A Parselmouth! You can talk to snakes!" Regina clarified in a near yell.

"So? Professor McGonagall turns into a cat! I bet loads of wizards can talk to snakes!"

"No, they can't." Regina told her, tersely. Hope didn't like the look on her face: it was too serious for her. It was usually reserved for when they had to go beneath the school to get a fancy rock out of the hands of Voldemort himself. "It's not a very common gift. This is bad, Hope, very bad."

"What's bad? What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin-."

"Oh, that's what you said to it?" There was almost a mocking disbelief in Regina's tone that made Hope narrow her eyes at her red-headed friend.

"What d'you mean? You were there. You heard me-."

"I heard you speaking Parseltongue. Snake language. You could have been saying anything. No wonder Justin panicked, you sounded like you were egging the snake on or something. It was creepy, you know." Hope just gaped at Regina.

"I spoke a different language? But... how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?" Regina just shook her head. She, Cassie and Hermes were all looking as though something dreadful had happened. Hope, however, couldn't see what was so terrible. She had just saved someone's life. A 'thank you' would've sufficed, not all the judgement and suspicion she was being treated to instead. "D'you want to tell me what's wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin's head? What does it matter how I did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"

"It matters because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for." Hermes said in a hushed voice. "That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent." Hope's mouth fell open.

"You can blame my brother, but he's not the one that everyone is going to be calling the Heir of Slytherin." Cassie whispered urgently, chewing on her lip-glossed covered lower lip.

"But I'm not." Hope said, with a panic she couldn't quite explain.

"You'll find that hard to prove." Hermes told her with an expression Hope could only describe as worried. "He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be."

* * *

Hope laid awake for hours that night. Cassie was sleeping peacefully in her own bed, but Hope couldn't even shut her eyes. One second, she was some legendary savior and the next she was the greatest evil the school had ever known. Couldn't she be just Hope for a moment?

The Girl Who Lived... The runaway orphan... The Heir of Slytherin...

She had heard a group of Hufflepuffs talking after her conversation with her friends in the classroom. It was hard to block out the words she'd heard.

"I told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean to say, if Potter's marked him down as her next victim, it's best if he keeps a low profile for a while."

"You definitely think it is Potter, then, Ernie?"

"Hannah, she's a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that's the mark of a Dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself Serpent-tongue. Remember what was written on the wall? Enemies of the Heir, Beware. Potter had some sort of run-in with Filch. Next thing we know, Filch's cat's attacked. That first year, Creevey, was annoying Potter at the Quidditch match, taking pictures of her while she was lying in the mud. Next thing we know, Creevey's been attacked."

"She always seems so nice, though, and, well, she's the one who made You-Know-Who disappear. She can't be all bad, can she?"

"No one knows how she survived that attack by You-Know-Who. I mean to say, she was only a baby when it happened. She should have been blasted into smithereens. Only a really powerful Dark wizard could have survived a curse like that. That's probably why You-Know-Who wanted to kill him in the first place. Didn't want another Dark Lord competing with him. I wonder what other powers Potter's been hiding?"

She'd run into Hagrid after that, who hadn't heard the story yet. He had told her about his dead chicken problem, but she had kept the story of her day to herself. She needed someone who didn't think she was a serial killer...

Hope turned over and buried her face into her pillow, willing herself not to cry. She had always been the outcast, rather by fame or by misfortune. But it had never hurt quite as badly as it did to be rejected and hated in the place that was supposed to be her home.

* * *

Hope stomped around Hogwarts the next day, trying to ignore the whispers and looks she received from nearly everyone in the school. Trying to avoid the newest batch of whispers, she stamped up the stairs and turned along another corridor, which was particularly dark; the torches had been extinguished by a strong, icy draft that was blowing through a loose windowpane. Hope was halfway down the passage when she tripped headlong over something lying on the floor.

She turned to squint at what she'd fallen over and felt as though her stomach had dissolved. Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight Hope had ever seen. It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly-white and transparent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.

Hope got to her feet, her breathing fast and shallow, her heart doing a kind of drumroll against his ribs. She looked wildly up and down the deserted corridor and saw a line of spiders scuttling as fast as they could away from the bodies. The only sounds were the muffled voices of teachers from the classes on either side. She could run, and no one would ever know she had been there. But she couldn't just leave them lying here...

As she stood there, panicking, a door right next to her opened with a bang. Peeves the Poltergeist came shooting out.

"Why, it's potty wee Potter!" Peeves cackled, knocking Hope's glasses askew as he bounced past her. "What's Potter up to? Why's Potter lurking-." Peeves stopped, halfway through a midair somersault. Upside down, he spotted Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. He flipped the right way up, filled his lungs and, before Hope could stop him, screamed: "ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"

Door after door flew open along the corridor and people flooded out. For several long minutes, there was a scene of such confusion that Justin was in danger of being squashed and people kept standing in Nearly Headless Nick. Hope found herself pinned against the wall as the teachers shouted for quiet. Professor McGonagall came running, followed by her class. She used her wand to set off a loud bang, which restored silence, and ordered everyone back into their classes. No sooner had the scene cleared somewhat than Ernie the Hufflepuff arrived, panting, on the scene.

"Caught in the act!" Ernie yelled, his face stark white, pointing his finger dramatically at Hope.

"That will do, Macmillan!" Professor McGonagall said sharply.

Peeves was bobbing overhead, now grinning wickedly, surveying the scene; Peeves always loved chaos. As the teachers bent over Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, examining them, Peeves broke into song:

"Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done, You're killing off students, you think it's good fun-."

"That's enough, Peeves!" Professor McGonagall barked and Peeves zoomed away backward, with his tongue out at Hope.

Justin was carried up to the hospital wing by Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department, but nobody seemed to know what to do for Nearly Headless Nick. In the end, Professor McGonagall conjured a large fan out of thin air, which she gave to Ernie with instructions to waft Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs. This Ernie did, fanning Nick along like a silent black hovercraft. This left Hope and Professor McGonagall alone together.

"This way, Potter."

"Professor, I swear I didn't-." Hope began, annoying feeling tears pricking at her eyes.

"This is out of my hands, Potter." Professor McGonagall told her curtly. They marched in silence around a corner and she stopped before a large and extremely ugly stone gargoyle. "Lemon drop!" This was evidently a password, because the gargoyle sprang suddenly to life and hopped aside as the wall behind him split in two. Behind the wall was a spiral staircase that was moving smoothly upward, like an escalator.

As she and Professor McGonagall stepped onto it, Hope heard the wall thud closed behind them. They rose upward in circles, higher and higher, until at last, slightly dizzy, Hope saw a gleaming oak door ahead, with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin. She knew then where she was being taken: Dumbledore's office.

They stepped off the stone staircase at the top and Professor McGonagall rapped on the door. It opened silently and they entered. Professor McGonagall told Hope to wait and left her there, alone.

Hope looked around. One thing was certain: of all the teachers' offices Hope had visited so far that year, Dumbledore's was by far the most interesting. If she hadn't been scared out of her wits that he was about to be thrown out of school, she would have been very pleased to have a chance to look around it. It was a large and beautiful circular room, full of funny little noises. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing gently in their frames. There was also an enormous, claw-footed desk, and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby, tattered wizard's hat: the Sorting Hat. It had put her in Slytherin. The evil house. The house were bad wizards came from. Voldemort's old house.

There was a strange gagging sound behind her and she whirled around. She wasn't alone after all. Standing on a golden perch behind the door was a decrepit-looking bird that resembled a half-plucked turkey. Hope stared at it and the bird looked balefully back, making its gagging noise again. Hope thought it looked very ill. Its eyes were dull and, even as Hope watched, a couple more feathers fell out of its tail.

She walked over to pet it and it let her stroke its head. She had always liked animals. Animals didn't judge like people did. She felt bad for the bird; it seemed to be trembling with weakness even as it accepted her strokes.

She was just thinking all she needed was for Dumbledore's bird to die while she was alone in the office with it when the bird suddenly burst into flames. Hope screamed in shock and backpedaled quickly to avoid being burned. She looked around, desperately, for water or a towel or something to put out the fire, but there was none. The bird, meanwhile, had become a fireball; it gave one loud shriek and next second there was nothing but a smoldering pile of ash on the floor.

The office door opened. Dumbledore came in, looking very somber.

"Professor... I... your bird... fire." She stammered. To her astonishment, Dumbledore just smiled.

"About time, to. He's been looking dreadful for days; I've been telling him to get a move on." He chuckled at the stunned look on Hope's face. "Fawkes is a phoenix, Hope. Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes. Watch him..."

Hope looked down in time to see a tiny, wrinkled, newborn bird poke its head out of the ashes. It was quite as ugly as the old one, but relief flooded through her.

"It's a shame you had to see him on a Burning Day." Dumbledore said, seating himself behind his desk. "He's really very handsome most of the time, wonderful red and gold plumage. Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers and they make highly faithful pets."

In the shock of Fawkes catching fire, Hope had forgotten what she was there for, but it all came back to her as Dumbledore settled himself in the high chair behind the desk and fixed Hope with his penetrating, light-blue stare. Before Dumbledore could speak another word, however, the door of the office flew open with an almighty bang and Hagrid burst in, a wild look in his eyes.

"It wasn't Hope, Professor Dumbledore!" Dumbledore tried to say something, but Hagrid went ranting on: "It can't've bin her, I'll swear it in front o' the Ministry o' Magic if I have to-."

"Hagrid, I-."

"Yeh've got the wrong girl, sir, I know her! She'd've never-."

"Hagrid!" Dumbledore interrupted loudly. "I do not think that Hope attacked those people."

"Oh." Hagrid looked embarrassed. "I'll just wait outside then."

"You don't think it was me, Professor?" Hope repeated hopefully as the door swung shut behind Hagrid.

"No, Hope, I don't." Dumbledore told her, though his face was somber again. "But I still want to talk to you."

Hope waited nervously while Dumbledore considered her, the tips of his long fingers together.

"I must ask you, Hope, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me. Anything at all."

Hope thought of Aries shouting 'you'll be next, Mudbloods' and of the Polyjuice Potion simmering away in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Then she thought of the disembodied voice she had heard twice and remembered what her friends had said. She thought, too, about what everyone else was saying about her and her growing dread that she was somehow connected with Salazar Slytherin...

So, with a classic Slytherin smile, she lied through her teeth to the most powerful wizard in the world:

"No, sir. Nothing."


	44. Identity Crisis

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

The holidays were approaching, but nothing was cheerful for Hope.

The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned what had been nervousness into real panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. What could possibly do that to a ghost, people asked each other. What terrible power could harm someone who was already dead? There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas. For a place that was supposed to be magical, homey and safe, people were in a rush to leave it behind the first chance they got.

But Hope was glad that most people were leaving. She was tired of people skirting around her in the corridors, as though she were about to sprout fangs or spit poison; tired of all the muttering, pointing, and hissing as she passed.

Fred and George Weasley, however, found the whole situation very funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Hope down the corridors, shouting:

"Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through!"

Percy was deeply disapproving of this behavior.

"It is not a laughing matter." He said coldly.

"Oh, get out of the way, Percy, Hope's in a hurry." Fred told him.

"Yeah, she's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with her fanged servant." George added, chortling.

Gavin didn't find it amusing either.

"Oh, don't." He cried every time Fred asked Hope loudly who she was planning to attack next or when George pretended to ward Hope off with a large clove of garlic when they met. Hope didn't mind; it made her feel better that Fred and George, at least, thought the idea of her being Slytherin's heir was quite ludicrous. Even her closest friends seemed suspicious of her; they didn't think she was behind it all, but her newfound talent seemed to unnerve them.

At last, the term ended and Hogwarts was much emptier with most of the students gone. It was more peaceful for Hope, rather than gloomier. Taking the opportunity presented to them, Cassie and Hope decided to bunk with one of their friends instead of staying with the remainder of the Slytherins. Hardly any of them had left; they were mostly pure-bloods that didn't have to worry about their safety. Hope had the sick feeling some of them wanted to see who would be attacked next, like it was all some sort of game.

Hope, Cassie and Regina ended up staying in Hermes's otherwise empty room in Ravenclaw tower on Christmas eve. As boys couldn't go into any of the girls dormitories but girls could go into the boys', it seemed the most logical. They feel asleep after too many games of Exploding Snap and Wizards Chess and awoke to a fully dressed Hermes, who was pulling open all the curtains so the sunlight blinded them.

"It's too early." Regina moaned from where she had fallen asleep on the floor. As she raised her head, there was a giant red mark on her face from where she'd rested her face against the edge of the chessboard all night.

"Merry Christmas to you too." Hermes told her dryly, tossing a present carelessly in her general direction. "I've been up for nearly an hour, adding more lace-wings to the potion. It's ready."

Hope sat up from her spot in Hermes's bed, suddenly wide-awake, and pushed the covers off her legs frantically.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." Hermes sat down next to her on the bed with a firm nod. "If we're going to do it, I say it should be tonight."

"And we'll prove everything. One way or another..." Cassie looked like she was still steeling herself for what was to come, her hair uncharacteristically a mess as she sat up straighter in the chair she'd fallen asleep in.

But, before their scheme was started, there were presents to open. Like last year, all their presents had been magically delivered to them regardless of their being in the wrong dormitories. Hope tore into her pile with just as much excitement as the previous year; the joy of having people that actually cared enough to give her something hadn't worn off yet.

Hagrid had sent her a large tin of treacle toffee, which Hope decided to soften by the fire before eating. Regina had given her a book called Flying with the Cannons, a book of interesting facts about her favorite Quidditch team. Hermes had bought her a luxury eagle-feather quill. Cassie had given her an expensive looking emerald ring. She opened the last present to find a new, hand-knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a large plum cake.

A piece of balled up wrapping paper hit her in the head. She looked up to see Regina smiling mischievously. And, within seconds, the entire room was covered in wrapping paper due to their brutal wrapping-paper-ball war.

* * *

No one, not even someone dreading taking Polyjuice Potion later, could fail to enjoy Christmas dinner at Hogwarts.

The Great Hall looked magnificent. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, but enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led them in a few of his favorite carols, Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of eggnog he consumed.

Cassie, Hermes and Hope sat with the Weasley's at the Gryffindor table, as there was plenty of room and rather lax rules over the holidays. Percy, who hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read 'Pinhead' kept asking them all what they were snickering at. Hope didn't even care that Pansy Parkinson was making snide remarks about Hope's new Weasley sweater from the Slytherin table.

The girls had barely finished their third helpings of Christmas pudding when Hermes ushered them out of the hall to finalize their plans for the evening.

"We still need a bit of the people you're changing into." He told them matter-of-factly, as though he were sending them to the supermarket for laundry detergent. He held up a small bottle for them to see. "I've made a simple Sleeping Draught. It's probably best to change into something of the same gender. I would suggest Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass for you two." He motioned to Hope and Regina.

"And what about her?" They pointed at Cassie.

"Remember when Millicent Bulstrode was fighting me during Dueling Club? I ripped out some of her hair. She's gone home for Christmas, but I'll just tell them I've decided to come back."

"And I have this." Hermes held up a vial with a small bit of hair in it. "I bumped into Blaise Zabini the other day... Nicked this off his robes."

"So we just need Pansy and Daphne." Hope clarified.

"Yes. Here. Put a little bit of this on a rag-."

"We're chloroforming them?"

"Uh... Yeah. But we're going to call it 'making them sleepy'." Hermes stammered, turning red in the face. Hope fought back a smirk; they had definitely been a bad influence on the boy who once worshiped teachers and would never think to break a rule. He handed over the vial of Sleeping Draught, still flushing furiously. "Go on now."

Finding Pansy and Daphne was easy: they were chatting to themselves as they headed down towards the Slytherin dungeon. Rags in hand, Regina and Hope lunged from behind. Catlike, Hope jumped on Pansy's back and wrapped her legs around the girl's waist. Pressing the rag to her face, Hope only had to wait a few seconds before Pansy fell, face-first, towards the ground. Hope rolled gently off her and turned to see Regina was on the ground, with Daphne on top of her. Regina groaned at Hope's stealthiness and crawled out from underneath Daphne's unconscious form.

They hid Pansy and Daphne in the nearest broom cupboard, yanked some hair out with a little more force than absolutely necessary and then stole their shoes to make sure they had the right sizes for when they transformed into the two girls. Then, still giddy and stunned about what they had just done, they sprinted back upstairs to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

They could hardly see for the thick black smoke issuing from the stall in which Hermes was stirring the cauldron. Pulling their robes up over their faces, Hope and Regina knocked on the door.

"Hermes? Cassie?" They heard the scrape of the lock and Hermes emerged, shiny-faced and looking anxious. Behind him, Cassie was looking unnerved and uncomfortable. They heard the gloop gloop of the bubbling, glutinous potion. Four glass tumblers stood ready on the toilet seat.

"Did you get them?" Hermes asked anxiously. Hope showed her Pansy's hair.

"You didn't need to get that much."

"I was... being careful." _And not vicious in the least..._

"Well, better safe than sorry." Hermes agreed, ignoring Hope's guilty face. "I pulled these out of the laundry for us, Regina." He held up two Slytherin robes for him and Regina; he truly had thought of everything.

The four of them gathered around the cauldron. Close up, the potion looked like thick, dark mud, bubbling sluggishly.

"I'm sure I've done everything right." Hermes said, nervously rereading the splotched page of Moste Potente Potions. "It looks like the book says it should... Once we've drunk it, we'll have exactly an hour before we change back into ourselves."

"Now what?" Regina whispered.

"We separate it into four glasses and add the hairs." Hermes ladled large dollops of the potion into each of the glasses. Then he pulled the hair of Blaise Zabini out of it's vial and dropped it into the first glass. The potion hissed loudly like a boiling kettle and frothed madly before it turned a moldy green color. "Add yours, then."

Hope dropped Pansy's hair into one glass. The same effect happened, only it turned a murky brown instead of green. Regina's potion turned a grey, dusty sort of color and Cassie's turned into a sick shade of yellow.

"Appetizing." Regina said dryly.

"Hang on." Hope cut in as everyone reached reluctantly for their glasses. "We'd better not all drink them in here. I don't think we'll all fit. Bulstrode's no pixie and Zabini is pretty broad."

"Good thinking." Regina told her, unlocking the door. "We'll take separate stalls." Careful not to spill any of their potion, they each took separate stalls.

"Ready?" Hope called.

"Ready." The voices of her friends replied.

"One, two, three..." Pinching her nose, Hope drank the potion down in two large gulps. It tasted even worse than Skele-Grow.

Immediately, her insides started writhing as though she'd just swallowed live snakes. Doubled up, she wondered whether she was going to be sick. Then a burning sensation spread rapidly from her stomach to the very ends of her fingers and toes. Next, bringing her gasping to all fours, came a horrible melting feeling, as the skin all over her body bubbled like hot wax. Before her eyes, she saw herself change. Her pale hands tanned, her fingernails morphed into perfectly manicured ones and her red hair falling around her face turned inky black and grew several inches in as many seconds.

As suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. Hope lay face-down on the stone-cold floor, listening to Myrtle gurgling morosely in the end toilet. Stomach still churning, she pushed herself to her feet. She kicked off her too-tight shoes and pulled on Pansy's shoes. She pushed away the annoying amount of hair and pulled off her glasses, realizing they were clouding her eyes because Pansy didn't need them.

"Are you guys okay?" She called to her friends, her voice coming out shrill and annoying just like Pansy's.

"Yeah." Came the high-pitched voice of Daphne Greengrass from Regina's stall.

"Yes." Came the grunting voice of Millicent Bulstrode from Cassie's stall.

Hope unlocked her stall door and stepped in front of the mirror. Pansy Parkinson stared back at her and it was an unnerving sight to say the least.

"This is unbelievable." Hope turned to see Daphne Greengass prodding her own button nose in pure wonder.

"I'm uncomfortable." Cassie complained as the large Millicent Bulstrode, standing very stiff and trying not to look in any reflective surface.

Regina banged on Hermes's door.

"Come on, we have to go!"

"I... I don't think I'm going to come after all. You go on without me."

"Hermes, you're the one that thought this up!" Hope complained.

"I know it's weird being Blaise but it's only for an hour." Cassie added.

"No, really, I don't think I'll come. You three hurry up, you're wasting time."

"Hermes, are you okay?" Hope questioned, hearing a shake in his voice.

"Fine, I'm fine. Go on." Hope looked at her watch. Five of their precious sixty minutes had already passed.

"We'll meet you back here, all right?" She called and then the three of them set off.

It was muscle memory getting back into the Slytherin common room, but they walked slowly so they could coach each other on how to look more natural. By the time they were outside the Slytherin common room, they only had thirty minutes left. They hurried in and spotted Aries immediately, sitting by the fire.

Hope steeled herself and then flounced over to him.

"Aries." She sank into a chair with an overly dramatic sigh. Aries glanced at her, smiled and sat up a little straighter. Regina and Cassie sat around her, trying to look as dramatic and stuffy as possible. Cassie was a little better at than Regina.

"Hello, Pansy."

"Everyone's gone." She pretend to cast a bored look around the room. "Shall we talk?"

"About what?" True to Cassie's predication, Aries was Pansy's little lapdog. Eager to please her. Hope tried not to smile and ruin her performance. She was getting to be a fairly good liar, she thought to herself.

"This whole Heir of Slytherin thing." She waved a careless hand.

"I wish I knew who it was. I don't think it's Potter." Aries told them, seemingly eager to contribute. They all tried to hide their surprise; Cassie looked ready to burst of happiness. Aries didn't know anything...

"Why not?" Regina tried to keep the conversation going, clearing her throat loudly.

"Well, my sister's friends with Potter. All summer she gushed about how nice and good she was. Besides, I think Father knows, he just won't tell me. But Father won't tell me anything about the last time the Chamber was opened either. Of course, it was fifty years ago, so it was before his time, but he knows all about it, and he says that it was all kept quiet and it'll look suspicious if I know too much about it. But I know one thing." He leaned over to whisper to them. "Last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So I bet it's a matter of time before one of them's killed this time."

"D'you know if the person who opened the Chamber last time was caught?" Hope asked as casually as possible.

"Oh, yeah... Whoever it was was expelled. They're probably still in Azkaban." He shifted restlessly in his chair. "Father says to keep my head down and let the Heir of Slytherin get on with it. He says the school needs ridding of all the Mudblood filth, but not to get mixed up in it. Of course, he's got a lot on his plate at the moment. You know the Ministry of Magic raided our manor last week?" He was eager again, like a puppy with a new toy. He was obviously trying to impress them. Hope tried to look as unimpressed as possible.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Luckily, they didn't find much. Father's got some very valuable Dark Arts stuff. But luckily, we've got our own secret chamber under the drawing-room floor-." Cassie kicked him, obviously out of instinct to keep the family secret, but then she looked panicked as she'd realized what she'd done.

"Muscle spasm." She lied quickly. Hope saw a strand of blond start to replace Bulstrode's brown hair.

"We need to take her to the hospital wing. Right now." Hope said firmly. The girls all jumped up and, in a way most unlike the people they were pretending to be, ran straight out of the Slytherin common room.

Hope saw her hair turning back to it's old, vibrant red as she ran. Her shoes became too big and she ran into a wall when her old eyesight kicked in. Her friends grabbed her arms and guided her back to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"See? My brother is not the heir of Slytherin!" Cassie said triumphantly as they locked the bathroom door behind them.

"I have to write my dad and tell him where to look on his next raid..." Regina mused.

"You will not! That's a family secret." Cassie looked appalled.

"Not anymore."

Hope went to hammer on Hermes's stall door.

"Hermes, come out, we're back."

"Go away!" Hermes yelled.

"What's the matter? You must be back to normal by now, we are." Regina told him as she and Cassie joined Hope by the door.

Moaning Myrtle glided suddenly through the stall door. Hope had never seen her looking so happy.

"Ooooooh, wait till you see. It's awful." They heard the lock slide back and Hermes emerged, his robes pulled up over his head.

"What's up?" Regina asked uncertainly. "Have you still got Blaise's nose or something?"

Hermes let his robes fall and all the girls backpedaled in shock. His face was covered in black fur. His eyes had turned yellow and there were long, pointed ears poking through his curly hair.

"It was a c-cat hair!" He stammered, sounding choked up. "Blaise Zabini m-must have a cat! And the p-potion isn't supposed to be used for animal transformations!"

"Uh-oh." Was all any of them could think to say..

"You'll be teased something dreadful." Myrtle said happily.

"It's okay, Hermes." Hope said quickly, trying to think of something to do. "We'll take you up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions..."

It took a long time to persuade Hermes to leave the bathroom. Moaning Myrtle sped them on their way with a hearty guffaw.

"Wait till everyone finds out you've got a tail!"


	45. The Man In The Book

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hermes remained in the hospital wing for several weeks afterwards. There was a flurry of rumor about his disappearance when the rest of school arrived back from the holiday break, because everyone thought he had been attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of him that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermes's bed, to spare him the shame of being seen with a furry face.

Hope, Regina and Cassie visited him every evening. They brought him homework for each day's classes.

"If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work." Regina said, tipping a stack of books onto Hermes's bedside table one evening.

"Don't be silly, Regina, I've got to keep up." Hermes returned briskly. His spirits were greatly improved by the fact that all the hair had gone from his face and his eyes were turning slowly back to brown. "I don't suppose you've got any new leads?" He added in a whisper, so that Madam Pomfrey couldn't hear him.

"Nothing."

"I was so sure it was Aries." Regina said, for about the hundredth time.

"Well, it wasn't." Cassie snapped smugly. Then she frowned. "What's that?" She reached into the trash bin to pull out a card. She sniffed it while the others looked at her in disgust. "It's from Lockhart!" She announced.

"You can tell by the smell?" Hermes demanded.

"He has his own brand of cologne." She hastily told them.

"More like flowery perfume..." Hope muttered. Cassie looked over the lilac get-well card and then at Hermes.

"May I?"

"Take it, if you're that desperate." Hermes told her with the same expression of disgust. At that moment, Madam Pomfrey came bustling over to give Hermes's his evening dose of medicine, prompting the others to leave.

"I forgot to ask him about my homework." Regina complained as they walked somewhat aimlessly; they would have to go to their own dormitories eventually but they still had some time. Regina looked over at Cassie, who was still fondling and sniffing the card. "Hey, you're smart."

"Well spotted."

"Maybe you could-."

"No. I'm not letting you copy off me." Cassie said without looking up from her new treasure. Regina was opening her mouth to respond, but was cut off by an angry outburst on the floor above them.

"Filch." Hope realized and they hurried up the stairs towards the yelling. They paused around a corner, out-of-sight.

"You don't think someone else has been attacked, do you?" Regina asked nervously. They stood quite still, listening to Filch's rant.

" _Even more work for me! Mopping all night, like I haven't enough to do. No, this is the final straw. I'm going to Dumbledore!_ " His footsteps receded along the out-of-sight corridor and they heard a distant door slam.

Peering around the corner, they saw a glimpse of what Filch had been shouting about. A great flood of water stretched over half the corridor and it looked as though it was still seeping under the door of Myrtle's bathroom. Now that Filch had stopped shouting, Myrtle's wails could be heard echoing off the bathroom walls.

"Now what's up with her?" Regina asked.

"Let's go and see." Hope suggested. Holding their robes over their ankles they stepped through the great wash of water to the door bearing its _out of order_ sign, ignored it as always, and entered.

Moaning Myrtle was crying, if possible, louder and harder than ever before. She seemed to be hiding down her usual toilet. It was dark in the bathroom because the candles had been extinguished in the great rush of water that had left both walls and floor soaking wet.

"What's up, Myrtle?" Hope called as nicely as she could.

"Who's that?" Myrtle sobbed miserably. "Come to throw something else at me?" Hope waded across to her stall.

"Why would I throw something at you?"

"Don't ask me." Myrtle shouted, emerging with a wave of yet more water, which splashed onto the already sopping floor. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me..."

"But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you." Hope reasoned. "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?" She had said the wrong thing. Myrtle puffed herself up and shrieked:

"Let's all throw books at Myrtle, because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head! Well, ha, ha, ha! What a lovely game, I don't think!"

"Who threw it at you, Myrtle?" Cassie asked, trying to calm her down.

"I don't know... I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head. It's over there, it got washed out..." They looked under the sink where Myrtle was pointing. A small, thin book lay there. It had a shabby black cover and was as wet as everything else in the bathroom. Hope stepped forward to pick it up, but Regina suddenly flung out an arm to hold her back.

"What?"

"Are you crazy? It could be dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Hope echoed with a scoff.

"Some of the books the Ministry's confiscated, Dad's told me, there was one that burned your eyes out. And everyone who read Sonnets of a Sorcerer spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives. And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could never stop reading! You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed. And-."

"Okay, I got it." Hope cut her off.

"It's also dirty. It got flushed down a toilet." Cassie added, picking at her manicure.

The little book lay on the floor, nondescript and soggy. It didn't look dangerous, but it did look dirty, Hope would admit. Still, she walked forward and picked it up. She saw at once that it was a diary and the faded year on the cover told her it was fifty years old. She opened it eagerly. On the first page she could just make out the name ' _T. M. Riddle'_ in smudged ink.

"Hang on." Regina said; she had approached cautiously and was looking over Hope's shoulder. "I know that name... T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."

"How on earth d'you know that?"

"Because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention. That was the one I burped slugs all over. If you'd wiped slime off a name for an hour, you'd remember it, too."

Hope peeled the wet pages apart. They were completely blank. There wasn't the faintest trace of writing on any of them, not even _Auntie Mabel's birthday_ , or _dentist, half-past three_.

"He never wrote in it." Hope said, disappointed.

"I wonder why someone wanted to flush it away?" Regina asked curiously.

Hope turned to the back cover of the book and saw the printed name of a variety store on Vauxhall Road, London.

"He must've been Muggle-born to have bought a diary from Vauxhall Road..."

"Well, it's not much use to you." Regina shrugged. Then she dropped her voice. "Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle's nose." Hope, however, pocketed it.

"Come on, before Filch comes back." She told them.

"First." Regina walked over to Cassie, still waiting by the door. She snatch the card out of Cassie's hand, ignoring her shrill protests, and went to flush it. "There. That's something that belongs in the toilet!"

* * *

Hermes left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tailless and fur-free, at the beginning of February. She joined Hope, Cassie and Regina on one of the moving staircases and Hope showed him the T. M Riddle's diary and told her the story of how they'd found it.

"Oooh, it might have hidden powers." He said enthusiastically, taking the diary and looking at it closely.

"If it has, it's hiding them very well." Regina scoffed. "Maybe it's shy. I don't know why you don't chuck it, Hope."

"I wish I knew why someone did try to chuck it. I wouldn't mind knowing how Riddle got an award for special services to Hogwarts either." Hope returned.

"Could've been anything. Maybe he got thirty O.W.L.s or saved a teacher from the giant squid. Maybe he murdered Myrtle; that would've done everyone a favor..."

"Regina!" Cassie tried to scold, but she was smirking cruelly at the thought.

But Hope could tell from the arrested look on Hermes's face that he was thinking what she was thinking.

"What?" Regina demanded, looking from one to the other.

"Well, the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago, wasn't it?" Hope tried to prompt her.

"That's what the brat said."

"Regina..." Cassie warned.

"Sorry. Our dear friend Aries Bethany Malfoy."

"His middle name is not Bethany!"

"This diary is fifty years old." Hermes interrupted, tapping it excitedly.

"So?"

"Oh, Regina, wake up." Hermes snapped. "We know the person who opened the Chamber last time was expelled fifty years ago. We know T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago. Well, what if Riddle got his special award for catching the Heir of Slytherin? His diary would probably tell us everything. Where the Chamber is and how to open it and what sort of creature lives in it. The person who's behind the attacks this time wouldn't want that lying around, would they?"

"That's a brilliant theory, Hermes, with just one tiny little flaw. _There's nothing written in his diary_." But Hermes was pulling his wand out of his bag.

"It might be invisible ink!" He whispered conspiratorially. He tapped the diary three times and said: "Aparecium!" Nothing happened. Undaunted, Hermes shoved his hand back into his bag and pulled out his Revealer. He rubbed hard on January first. Nothing happened.

"I'm telling you, there's nothing to find in there." Regina sighed. "Riddle just got a diary for Christmas and couldn't be bothered filling it in."

* * *

Hope couldn't explain, even to herself, why she didn't just throw Riddle's diary away. The fact was that even though she knew the diary was blank, she kept absentmindedly picking it up and turning the pages, as though it were a story she wanted to finish. And while Hope was sure she had never heard the name T. M. Riddle before, it still seemed to mean something to her, almost as though Riddle was a friend she'd had when she was very small and had half-forgotten. But that was absurd. She'd never had friends before Hogwarts.

Nevertheless, Hope was determined to find out more about Riddle, so next day at break, she headed for the trophy room to examine Riddle's special award, accompanied by an interested Hermes, a slightly intrigued Cassie and a thoroughly unconvinced Regina, who told them she'd seen enough of the trophy room to last her a lifetime. Riddle's burnished gold shield was tucked away in a corner cabinet. It didn't carry details of why it had been given to him.

"Good thing, too, or it'd be even bigger and I'd still be polishing it." Regina said bitterly.

However, they did find Riddle's name on an old Medal for Magical Merit and on a list of old Head Boys.

"He sounds like Percy... Prefect, Head Boy... probably top of every class-." Regina scoffed. Hermes and Cassie glared at her.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

* * *

The sun had now begun to shine weakly on Hogwarts again. Inside the castle, the mood had grown more hopeful. There had been no more attacks since those on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, and Madam Pomfrey was pleased to report that the Mandrakes were becoming moody and secretive, meaning that they were fast leaving childhood.

"The moment their acne clears up, they'll be ready for repotting again." Hope heard her telling Filch kindly one afternoon. "And after that, it won't be long until we're cutting them up and stewing them. You'll have Mrs. Norris back in no time."

Perhaps the Heir of Slytherin had lost his or her nerve. It must've be getting riskier and riskier to open the Chamber of Secrets, with the school so alert and suspicious. Perhaps the monster, whatever it was, was even now settling itself down to hibernate for another fifty years...

Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff didn't take this cheerful view. He was still convinced that Hope was the guilty one, that she had 'given herself away' at the Dueling Club. Peeves wasn't helping matters; he kept popping up in the crowded corridors singing 'oh, Potter, you rotter', now with a dance routine to match.

Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to think he himself had made the attacks stop. Hope overheard him telling Professor McGonagall so while the Slytherins and Gryffindors were lining up for Transfiguration.

"I don't think there'll be any more trouble, Minerva." He said, tapping his nose knowingly and winking. "I think the Chamber has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught him. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on him. You know, what the school needs now is a morale-booster. Wash away the memories of last term! I won't say any more just now, but I think I know just the thing..." He tapped his nose again and strode off.

Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster became clear at breakfast time on February fourteenth. Hope hadn't had much sleep because of a late-running Quidditch practice the night before and she hurried down to the Great Hall, slightly late. She thought, for a moment, that she'd walked through the wrong doors. The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling.

Hope went over to sit next to Cassie, who seemed to be overcome with a fit of giggles.

"What's going on?" She hissed. Cassie pointed towards the teacher's table, giggling too hard to speak.

Lockhart, wearing lurid pink robes to match the decorations, was waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were looking stony-faced. From where she sat, Hope could see a muscle going in Professor McGonagall's cheek. Snape looked as though someone had just fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all and it doesn't end here!" Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps. "My friendly, card-carrying cupids! They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!" Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.

"Please, Cassie, tell me you weren't one of the forty-six." Hope pleaded. Cassie just started giggling even harder.

All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers,and late that afternoon as the Slytherins and Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of the dwarfs caught up with Hope.

"Oy, you! 'Ope Potter!" A particularly grim-looking dwarf shouted, elbowing people out of the way to get to Hope. Hope tried to escape desperately, but a few laughing second-years locked their arms together and wouldn't let her past.

The dwarf cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins, and reached her beforeshe could leap over the crowd.

"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Ope Potter in person." He said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way.

"Not here." Hope hissed, trying to escape again.

"Stay still !" The dwarf grunted, grabbing hold of Hope's bag and pulling her back.

"Let me go!" Hope snarled, tugging. With a loud ripping noise, her bag split in two. Her books, wand, parchment and quill spilled onto the floor and her ink bottle smashed over everything. Hope scrambled around, trying to pick it all up before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a holdup in the corridor.

"What's going on here?" Pansy's shrill voice came from the crowd. Hope started stuffing everything feverishly into her ripped bag, desperate to get away before Pansy could hear her musical valentine.

"What's all this commotion?" Percy Weasley had arrived.

Panicking, Hope tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized her around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor.

"Right." He said, sitting on Hope's ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:

 _Her eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,_

 _Her hair is as red as a red brick road._

 _I wish she was mine_

 _She's really divine,_

 _The heroine who conquered the Dark Lord._ "

Hope would have given all the gold in Gringotts to evaporate on the spot. Trying valiantly to laugh along with everyone else, she got up, her feet numb from the weight of the dwarf. Percy Weasley did his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth.

"Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class, now." He said, shooing some of the younger students away. "And you, Parkinson."

Hope, glancing over, saw Pansy stoop and pick something up. Leering, she showed it to Daphne and Millicent and Hope realized it was T.M Riddle's diary.

"Give that back." She demanded.

"Wonder what Potter's written in this." She snickered, obviously not noticing the year on the cover. A hush had fallen over the onlookers. Gavin looked between the diary and Hope with a terrified expression.

"Hand it over, Parkinson." Percy told her sternly, holding out his hand expectantly.

"In a minute." Pansy shot back, waving the diary tauntingly at Hope.

"As a school prefect-." Percy began, but Hope had already lost her temper. She grabbed her wand and shouted:

"Expelliarmus!" The diary shot out of Pansy's hand and went soaring through the air. Regina caught it expertly, smiling widely.

"Hope! No magic in the corridors. I'll have to report this, you know!" Percy warned. Hope didn't care; she was one up on Pansy. As everyone dispersed, Pansy called after Gavin:

"I don't think your girlfriend liked your valentine!" Gavin froze, but then took off running around the corner, flushing dark. Snarling in defense of her younger brother, Regina pulled out her wand, too, but Hope pulled her away. Regina didn't need to spend the whole of Charms belching slugs.

It wasn't until they had reached Professor Flitwick's class that Hope noticed something rather odd about Riddle's diary. All her other books were drenched in scarlet ink. The diary, however, was as clean as it had been before the ink bottle had smashed all over it. She tried to point this out to Regina, but Regina was having trouble with her wand again; large purple bubbles were blossoming out of the end, and she wasn't much interested in anything else.


	46. Welcome To My Life

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hope went to her dormitory before anyone else turned in that night. Cassie was studying in the common room but Hope couldn't focus on any of their textbooks. She showered and changed into a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top, trying to relax and shut out the valentine song replaying in her head.

The diary was lying on her bedside table when she came out of the bathroom, tying her damp hair back into a ponytail. Hope sat on her four-poster bed and grabbed it, flicking through it. Not a single page had a spot of ink on it.

She pulled out her ink and quill, fighting Crookshanks over it, and dropped a blot of ink onto the first page. The ink shone brightly on the paper for a second and then, as though it was being sucked into the page, vanished. Hope stared at it for a minute and then, beginning to feel as though she was finally getting somewhere, she balanced the diary on her knee and dipped her quill into the ink again.

 _My name is Hope Potter_

The words shone momentarily on the page and they, too, faded and vanished without trace. Then, at last, something happened. Oozing back out of the page, in her very own ink, came words that Hope had never written.

 _Hello, Hope Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come to my diary?_

These words, too, faded away. Hope briefly considering getting Cassie to show her but she stopped herself. She could tell her later; she wanted to know the story now. She scribbled back an answer to the diary.

 _Someone tried to flush it down a toilet_

She waited eagerly for Tom Riddle's reply. Maybe it was stupid to trust some self-writing diary, but she trusted the Marauders Map. What was the difference, really?

 _Lucky that I recorded my memories in some more lasting way than ink. But I always knew that there would be those who would not want this diary read_

Hope scribbled an answer back hastily, not caring that she blotted the page in her haste.

 _What do you mean?_

 _I mean that this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things that were covered up. Things that happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

 _That's where I am. I'm at Hogwarts and horrid things are happening. Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?_

Her heart was hammering as she waited for a response. Riddle's reply came quickly, his writing becoming untidier, as though he was hurrying to tell all he knew.

 _Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the truth. A story was given out that the girl had died in a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned_

Hope nearly knocked over her ink bottle in her haste to write back. Crookshanks was hissing at the diary and she pushed him impatiently away.

 _It's happening again. There have been three attacks already and no one seems to know who's behind them. Who was it last time?_

 _I can show you, if you like. You don't have to take my word for it. I can take you inside my memory of the night when I caught him._

Hope hesitated, quill suspended over the diary. She didn't like the sound of that. Being in someone else's memory inside a diary? But she had to know what had happened if she had any chance at stopping it herself, to prove it wasn't her doing it... To save any other Muggle-borns that could be attacked...

New words had formed on the page while she'd been thinking:

 _Let me show you_

Hope paused for a second before she wrote two simple letters:

 _OK_

The pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, stopping halfway through the month of June. Mouth hanging open, Hope saw that the little square for June thirteenth seemed to have turned into a minuscule television screen. Her hands trembling slightly, she raised the book to press her eye against the little window to see what was happening. Before she knew what was happening, she was tilting forward; the window was widening and she felt her body leave her bed. She was pitched headfirst through the opening in the page, into a whirl of color and shadow.

She felt her bare feet hit solid ground, and stood, shaking with sudden coldness, as the blurred shapes around her came suddenly into focus. She knew immediately where she was. This circular room with the sleeping portraits was Dumbledore's office. But it wasn't Dumbledore who was sitting behind the desk. A wizened, frail-looking wizard, bald except for a few wisps of white hair, was reading a letter by candlelight. Hope had never seen that man before.

Hope froze, but then raised a hand to wave wildly in the man's direction. The man didn't seem to see her, so she gave up and looked around. She couldn't see how the office had anything to do with the Chamber of Secrets.

The wizard folded up the letter with a sigh, stood up, walked past Hope without glancing at her and went to draw the curtains at his window. The sky outside the window was ruby-red; it seemed to be sunset. The wizard went back to the desk, sat down and twiddled his thumbs, watching the door.

Hope looked around the office. No Fawkes the phoenix. No whirring silver contraptions. This was Hogwarts as Riddle had known it, meaning that this unknown wizard was headmaster, not Dumbledore, and she, Hope, was little more than a phantom, completely invisible to the people of fifty years ago.

There was a knock on the office door that made Hope jump in surprise.

"Enter." The old wizard called in a feeble voice. A boy of about sixteen entered, taking off his pointed hat. A silver prefect's badge was glinting on his chest. He was much taller than Hope, with jet-black hair. "Ah, Riddle."

"You wanted to see me, Professor Dippet?" Riddle asked. He looked nervous.

"Sit down. I've just been reading the letter you sent me."

"Oh." Riddle sat down, gripping his hands together very tightly.

"My dear boy." Dippet began kindly. "I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the summer. Surely you want to go home for the holidays?"

"No." Riddle said at once. "I'd much rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to that... to that..."

"You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?"

"Yes, sir." Riddle replied, reddening slightly.

"You are Muggle-born?"

"Half-blood, sir. Muggle father, witch mother."

"And are both your parents-."

"My mother died just after I was born, sir. They told me at the orphanage she lived just long enough to name me. Tom after my father, Marvolo after my grandfather." Dippet clucked his tongue sympathetically.

"The thing is, Tom." He sighed. "Special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstances..."

"You mean all these attacks, sir?" Riddle asked. Hope walked closer, wanting to soak in as much information as she could.

"Precisely. My dear boy, you must see how foolish it would be of me to allow you to remain at the castle when term ends. Particularly in light of the recent tragedy... the death of that poor little girl... You will be safer by far at your orphanage. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Magic is even now talking about closing the school. We are no nearer locating the, er, source of all this unpleasantness..." Riddle's eyes had widened.

"Sir, if the person was caught, if it all stopped-."

"What do you mean?" Dippet asked with a squeak in his voice, sitting up in his chair. "Riddle, do you mean you know something about these attacks?"

"No, sir." Riddle replied quickly. But Hope was sure it was the same sort of 'no' that she herself had given Dumbledore. Dippet sank back, looking faintly disappointed.

"You may go, Tom..." Riddle slid off his chair and slouched out of the room. Hope followed him, bare-feet slapping against the cold, stone floor.

Down the moving spiral staircase they went, emerging next to the gargoyle in the darkening corridor. Riddle stopped, and so did Hope, watching him. Hope could tell that Riddle was doing some serious thinking. He was biting his lip, his forehead furrowed. Then, as though he had suddenly reached a decision, he hurried off, Hope gliding noiselessly behind him. They didn't see another person until they reached the entrance hall, when a tall wizard with long, sweeping auburn hair and a beard called to Riddle from the marble staircase.

"What are you doing, wandering around this late, Tom?" Hope gaped at the wizard. He was none other than a fifty-year-younger Dumbledore.

"I had to see the headmaster, sir."

"Well, hurry off to bed." Dumbledore told him, giving Riddle exactly the kind of penetrating stare Hope knew so well. "Best not to roam the corridors these days. Not since..." He sighed heavily, bade Riddle good night and strode off.

Riddle watched him walk out of sight and then, moving quickly, headed straight down the stone steps to the dungeons, with Hope in hot pursuit. But to Hope disappointment, Riddle led her not into a hidden passageway or a secret tunnel but to the very dungeon in which Hope had Potions with Snape every week. The torches hadn't been lit, and when Riddle pushed the door almost closed, Hope could only just see him, standing stock-still by the door, watching the passage outside.

It felt to Hope that they were there for at least an hour. All he could see was the figure of Riddle at the door, staring through the crack, waiting like a statue. She had lied down on a long desk and, just when she had stopped feeling expectant and tense and started wishing she could return to the present, she heard something move beyond the door. Someone was creeping along the passage.

Scrambling off the desk, she heard whoever it was pass the dungeon where she and Riddle were hidden. Riddle, quiet as a shadow, edged through the door and followed, Hope tiptoeing behind him, forgetting that she couldn't be heard. For perhaps five minutes they followed the footsteps, until Riddle stopped suddenly, his head inclined in the direction of new noises. Hope heard a door creak open, and then someone speaking in a hoarse whisper.

"C'mon... gotta get yeh outta here... C'mon now... in the box..." There was something familiar about that voice...

Riddle suddenly jumped around the corner. Hope stepped out behind him. She could see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box next to it.

"Evening, Rubeus." Riddle spoke sharply. The boy slammed the door shut and stood up.

"What yer doin' down here, Tom?" Riddle stepped closer.

"It's all over. I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don't stop."

"What d'yeh-."

"I don't think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and-."

"It never killed no one!" The large boy protested, backing against the closed door. From behind him, Hope could hear a funny rustling and clicking.

"Come on, Rubeus." Riddle said, moving yet closer. "The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered..."

"It wasn't him!" The boy roared, his voice echoing in the dark passage. "He wouldn'! He never!"

"Stand aside." Riddle commanded, drawing out his wand. His spell lit the corridor with a sudden flaming light. The door behind the large boy flew open with such force it knocked him into the wall opposite. And out of it came something that made Hope let out a long, piercing scream unheard by anyone: a vast, low-slung, hairy body and a tangle of black legs, a gleam of many eyes and a pair of razor-sharp pincers.

Riddle raised his wand again, but he was too late. The thing bowled him over as it scuttled away, tearing up the corridor and out of sight while Hope was still screaming like a maniac as it nearly ran into her.

Riddle scrambled to his feet, looking after it; he raised his wand, but the huge boy leapt on him, seized his wand and threw him back down, yelling:

"NOOOOOOO!"

The scene whirled, the darkness became complete; Hope felt herself falling and, with a crash, she landed spread-eagled on her four-poster bed.

Crookshanks was yowling; the diary had fallen off onto the floor and the cat was hissing at it in between piercing yowls. The door to the dormitory flew open before Hope could even catch her breath and Cassie ran in, having obviously heard the racket the cat was making.

"What happened?" Cassie demanded, shutting the door behind her. Hope pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, sweating and shaking. Crookshanks slunk over to Cassie, his yowling coming to a stop, but the hissing and spitting continuing.

"It was Hagrid, Cassie. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."


	47. And Then There Were Three

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

The four friends had always known that Hagrid had an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. It would be long time before they forgot the dragon, Norbert, or the three-headed dog, Fluffy. And if, as a boy, Hagrid had heard that a monster was hidden somewhere in the castle, Hope was sure he'd have gone to any lengths for a glimpse of it. He'd probably thought it was a shame that the monster had been cooped up so long and thought it deserved the chance to stretch its many legs. Hope could just imagine the thirteen-year-old Hagrid trying to fit a leash and collar on it. But she was equally certain that Hagrid would never have meant to kill anybody.

Hagrid was her first friend and, sometimes, it seemed he was the only adult in the world that cared about her. He couldn't be a murderer. Hope wouldn't accept it. At the same time, she wished she had never figured out how to work the diary. It had opened up a whole can of worms she couldn't shut again.

Her friends made her recount the story until she was sick of it. They sat on a moving staircase, in the middle of a conversation that never went anywhere.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person. Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people..." Hermes tried to convince them, or maybe just himself.

"How many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Regina asked dully.

"We always knew Hagrid had been expelled." Hope moaned, pressing her knuckles to her eyes to try and block out the flashes of memory that kept invading her mind. "And the attacks must've stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have got his award."

"Riddle does sound like Percy. Who asked him to squeal on Hagrid, anyway?" Regina wondered aloud.

"The monster had killed someone." Cassie reminded them. "Accident or not, if it was Hagrid and if he's doing it again..."

"It's not Hagrid!" Hope snapped at her.

"You met Hagrid down Knockturn Alley, didn't you, Hope?" Hermes asked. Knockturn Alley was known for being full of old, dangerous things and people alike.

"He was buying a Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent." Hope told them quickly. The four of them fell silent. After a long pause, Hermes voiced the knottiest question of all in a hesitant voice:

Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?"

"That'd be a cheerful visit." Regina scoffed. "'Hello, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately'?"

In the end, they decided that they would not say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack, and as more and more days went by with no whisper from the disembodied voice, they became hopeful that they would never need to talk to him about why he had been expelled.

* * *

Nearly four months passed Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been Petrified and nearly everybody seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good. Peeves had finally got bored of his 'oh, Potter, you rotter' song. Ernie Macmillan asked Hope quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day.

In March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in greenhouse three. This made Professor Sprout very happy.

"The moment they start trying to move into each other's pots, we'll know they're fully mature." She told Hope. "Then we'll be able to revive those poor people in the hospital wing."

* * *

The second years were given something new to think about during their Easter holidays. The time had come to choose their subjects for the third year, a matter that Hermes and Cassie, at least, took very seriously.

"It could affect our whole future." Hermes told Hope and Regina as they poured over lists of new subjects, marking them with checks. Cassie was looking at her list as though it was the Holy Grail.

"Which is best for a job in the Ministry? Mother and Father would be proud..."

"I just want to give up Potions." Hope said.

"We can't." Regina complained gloomily. "We keep all our old subjects, or I'd've ditched Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"But that's very important!" Hermes posted, shocked.

"Not the way Lockhart teaches it. I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose." Regina shot back.

"He's trying." Cassie jumped to his defense, but returned to her list when they all shot her dirty looks.

Nadine Longbottom had been sent letters from all the witches and wizards in her family, all giving her different advice on what to choose. Confused and worried, she sat reading the subject lists with her tongue poking out, asking people whether they thought Arithmancy sounded more difficult than the study of Ancient Runes.

A few students closed their eyes and randomly pointed. When Hope and Regina tried that, Hermes nearly blew a gasket. He took nobody's advice, though he certainly gave it out, and signed up for everything.

In the end, Hope and Regina just chose the subjects that sounded the most fun.

* * *

In April, Slytherin's next quidditch match would be against Ravenclaw. They practiced hard; the Ravenclaw's were always very strategic when it came to games. When Hope and Cassie went stumbling into the entrance hall to head out to the field for the came, they were met by Hermes and Regina.

"You'll do great. What's intelligence against talent?" Regina tried to cheer them on.

"I need to see your list of new subjects." Hermes demanded of Hope. Hope rolled her eyes at the control freak but obediently dug it out of her bag. As she retrieved it in her fist, she frowned. Dropping to her knees, she turned her bag over. Quills, notebooks and papers were scattered but there was one thing that wasn't there. Riddle's diary.

"The diary's gone." She gasped.

"What?" Her friends started pawing through her things as well but came up just as empty handed.

"Where did you leave your bag?" Hermes demanded.

"In the locker room yesterday, during practice."

"Anyone could've gone in there."

"Only if they knew what they were looking for." Cassie shot back. Hope started to shove her things angrily back into her bag. How could she have been so stupid as to leave her bag with something as important as a sentient diary in a locker room for hours at a time?

" _Kill this time... Let me rip... Tear..._ " Hope jerked and dropped a book in surprise.

"What?" Her friends asked.

"The voice! You didn't hear that?" She demanded. Regina shook her head, staring wide-eyed at Hope. Cassie picked up the fallen book and looked at Hope mournfully, like she was deciding what flower would look best on her casket. But Hermes slapped a hand to his forehead and gasped like he'd been electrocuted.

"Hope, I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!" And he sprinted away, up the stairs.

"What does he understand?" Hope asked distractedly, still looking around, trying to tell where the voice had come from.

"Loads more than I do." Regina admitted.

"But why's she got to go to the library?"

"Because that's what Hermes does. When in doubt, go to the library."

Hope stood, irresolute, trying to catch the voice again, but people were now emerging from the Great Hall behind her, talking loudly, exiting through the front doors on their way down to the Quidditch pitch.

"You'd better get moving. It's nearly eleven, the match."

* * *

Hope was just mounting her broom to prepare for take-off when Professor McGonagall came half-marching and half-running with a megaphone in her hand. She called through the megaphone, addressing the packed stadium:

"The match has been canceled." There were boos and shouts. "All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

Then she lowered the megaphone and beckoned Hope over to her. Cassie followed her over.

"Potter, I think you'd better come with me... Malfoy, you should come too." Wondering how she could possibly suspect her this time, Hope saw Regina detach herself from the complaining crowd. She came running up to them as they set off toward the castle. To Hope surprise, Professor McGonagall didn't object. "Yes, perhaps you'd better come, too, Weasley."

Some of the students swarming around them were grumbling about the match being canceled; others looked worried. Hope, Cassie and Regina followed Professor McGonagall back into the school and up the marble staircase. But they weren't taken to anybody's office this time.

"This will be a bit of a shock." Professor McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice as they approached the hospital wing. "There has been another attack... another double attack."

Hope's insides did a horrible somersault. Professor McGonagall pushed the door open and they entered. Madam Pomfrey was bending over a sixth-year girl with long, curly hair. And on the bed next to her was...

"Hermes." The trio stared at Hermes, who lay utterly still, his eyes open and glassy. Cassie clamped a hand over her mouth like she was going to be sick. Regina was staring wide-eyed, like she couldn't believe her eyes. Hope felt like her stomach had dropped out and no longer existed inside her body; Hermes had been fine just moments ago... How could it have happened so fast? She should've stopped it... She should've...

"They were found near the library. I don't suppose either of you can explain this? It was on the floor next to them." Professor McGonagall was holding up a small, circular mirror. The trio shook their heads. "Well, I'll escort you to your common rooms. Each house has to be addressed by it's head."

* * *

No student was to be allowed out of their house common room except for lessons. They would be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student was to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities.

After the new rules were read and Snape had left, Cassie and Hope darted back to their dormitory. Cassie was pale and shaky; all her normal confident, beautiful bravado had disappeared ever since they'd seen Hermes in the hospital wing.

"We have to go talk to Hagrid." Hope told her, making up her mind even as she said it. "I can't believe it's him this time, but if he set the monster loose last time he'll know how to get inside the Chamber of Secrets, and that's a start."

"But we can't leave the common room." Cassie protested.

"We have the cloak."

"And what about Regina?"

"That'll take a little more work..."


	48. A Trail To Follow

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hope and Cassie waited, impatiently, for all the Slytherins in the common room to drift off to bed. While they could just use the cloak and sneak past everyone, the other students would surely notice the entrance wall moving and going back into place. It took more time than Hope thought they could spare, as Slytherins could pull all-nights as well as any Ravenclaw, but eventually the common room was clear.

"Come on." Hope hissed to Cassie, throwing on her hoodie and grabbing the cloak. Cassie, who had been frowning down at a hole in her nylons, jerked and raced to follow. They threw the invisibility cloak on and raced on their way.

The journey through the dark and deserted castle corridors wasn't enjoyable. Hope, who had wandered the castle at night several times before, had never seen it so crowded after sunset. Teachers, prefects, and ghosts were marching the corridors in pairs, staring around for any unusual activity. Their Invisibility Cloak didn't stop them making any noise and they had to move slowly and carefully. It was with relief that they reached the oak front doors and eased them open.

It was a clear, starry night and they had enough natural light to see their way. They hurried down the hill towards the Qudditch pitch and Hope yanked open the door to the broom shed.

"Are you sure about this?" Cassie whispered, though they were entirely alone.

"No." But it had to be done. Hope mounted the broom and Cassie got on behind her, throwing the invisibility cloak back over the both of them and the broom. Hope kicked off the ground and they soared up back towards the castle.

Gryffindor tower was easily enough to spot and Hope parked the broom right outside the windows. Peering inside, they gently drifted along until they saw the one they were looking for. Through the window, they could see Regina's tomato red hair spread across her pillow with Scabbers the rat asleep next to her. Her dorm-mates were all asleep as well, so Hope began to gently ease the window open while Cassie held their broom steady.

The window didn't open all the way, or even most of the way. It opened just enough that Hope had to slither in on her stomach, not an easy feat when she had to do so while still partially on a broom. But she crawled into the room and crouched low on the floor, eyes focused on Regina in the dim room. Scurrying across the floor, Hope leaned over Regina and then quickly clamped her hand over her friend's mouth. Regina woke up in a frenzy, trying to push her away, but soon calmed as she realized who it was. Hope put her finger to mouth and pointed to the window. Regina sat up and looked. Cassie poked a hand out from under the invisibility cloak to beckon her over.

Regina looked at Hope and mouthed:

"What?"

"Just come on." Hope whispered back. Regina shook her head but scrambled off her bed and quickly got dressed.

Slithering out the window and onto the broom was even harder than it was to do the reverse. After almost falling to their deaths, the three girls were situated on the broom and they glided back down to the ground. Abandoning the broom near a castle wall, the trio hurried towards the lights of Hagrid's cabin.

Seconds after they had knocked and ripped off the cloak, Hagrid flung the door open. They found themselves face-to-face with him aiming a crossbow at them. Fang the boarhound barked loudly behind him.

"Oh." He said, lowering the weapon and staring at them. "What're you three doin' here?"

Without waiting for an answer, he hustled them inside and told them he'd make tea. But he hardly seemed to know what he was doing. He nearly extinguished the fire, spilling water from the kettle on it, and then smashed the teapot with a nervous jerk of his massive hand.

"Are you okay, Hagrid?" Hope questioned; Regina and Cassie were being licked to death by Fang. "Did you hear about Hermes?"

"Oh, I heard, all righ'." Hagrid said, a slight break in his voice. He kept glancing nervously at the windows. He poured them all large mugs of boiling water, as he had forgotten to add tea bags, and was just putting a slab of fruitcake on a plate when there was a loud knock on the door. Hagrid dropped the fruitcake. The girls exchanged panic-stricken looks, then threw the Invisibility Cloak back over themselves and retreated into a corner. Hagrid checked that they were hidden, seized his crossbow, and flung open his door once more.

"Good evening, Hagrid." It was Dumbledore. He entered, looking deadly serious, and was followed by a second, very odd-looking man. The stranger had rumpled gray hair and an anxious expression; he was wearing a strange mixture of clothes: a pinstriped suit, a scarlet tie, a long black cloak and pointed purple boots. Under his arm he carried a lime-green bowler.

"That's Dad's boss!" Regina breathed. "Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic!" Hope elbowed Regina hard to make her shut up.

Hagrid had gone pale and sweaty. He dropped into one of his chairs and looked from Dumbledore to Cornelius Fudge.

"Bad business, Hagrid." Fudge said in rather clipped tones. "Very bad business. Had to come. Four attacks on Muggle-borns. Things've gone far enough. Ministry's got to act."

"I never." Hagrid protested, looking imploringly at Dumbledore. "You know I never, Professor Dumbledore, sir-."

"I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence." Dumbledore said, frowning at Fudge.

"Look, Albus." Fudge seemed uncomfortable. "Hagrid's record's against him. Ministry's got to do something. The school governors have been in touch-."

"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will not help in the slightest." Dumbledore interrupted. His blue eyes were full of a fire that Hope had never seen before.

"Look at it from my point of view." Fudge told them, fidgeting with his bowler. "I'm under a lot of pressure. Got to be seen to be doing something. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no more said. But I've got to take him. Got to. Wouldn't be doing my duty-."

"Take me? Take me where?" Hagrid asked with a trembling voice. Hope looked between Cassie and Regina with wide-eyes. Hagrid wasn't being arrested... Was he?

"For a short stretch only. Not a punishment, Hagrid, more a precaution. If someone else is caught, you'll be let out with a full apology-."

"Not Azkaban?" Hagrid croaked. Before Fudge could answer, there was another loud rap on the door. Dumbledore answered it. It was Cassie's turn for an elbow in the ribs; she'd let out an audible gasp. Mr. Lucius Malfoy strode into Hagrid's hut, swathed in a long black traveling cloak, smiling a cold and satisfied smile. Fang started to growl.

"Already here, Fudge." He said approvingly. "Good, good...

"What're you doin' here?" Hagrid asked furiously. "Get outta my house!"

"My dear man, please believe me, I have no pleasure at all in being inside your, er, d'you call this a house?" Lucius Malfoy asked, sneering as he looked around the small cabin. It was almost the same reaction Cassie had had when she'd first seen it, just Cassie had had more tact. "I simply called at the school and was told that the headmaster was here."

"And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?" Dumbledore spoke politely, but the fire was still blazing in his blue eyes.

"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore." Mr. Malfoy said lazily, taking out a long roll of parchment. "But the governors feel it's time for you to step aside. This is an Order of Suspension. You'll find all twelve signatures on it. I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. How many attacks have there been now? Two more this afternoon, wasn't it? At this rate, there'll be no Muggle-borns left at Hogwarts and we all know what an awful loss that would be to the school."

"Oh, now, see here, Lucius." Fudge cut in, looking alarmed, "Dumbledore suspended. No, no. Last thing we want just now-."

"The appointment, or suspension, of the headmaster is a matter for the governors, Fudge. And as Dumbledore has failed to stop these attacks-."

"See here, Malfoy, if Dumbledore can't stop them." Fudge's upper lip was sweating. "I mean to say, who can?"

"That remains to be seen." Mr. Malfoy said with a nasty smile. "But as all twelve of us have voted-."

Hagrid leapt to his feet, his shaggy black head grazing the ceiling.

"An' how many did yeh have ter threaten an' blackmail before they agreed, Malfoy, eh?" He roared.

"Dear, dear, you know, that temper of yours will lead you into trouble one of these days, Hagrid. I would advise you not to shout at the Azkaban guards like that. They won't like it at all."

"Yeh can' take Dumbledore!" Hagrid yelled, making Fang cower and whimper in his basket. "Take him away, an' the Muggle-borns won' stand a chance! There'll be killin' next!"

"Calm yourself, Hagrid." Dumbledore told him sharply. He looked at Lucius Malfoy. "If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside-."

"But-." Fudge stuttered.

"No!" Hagrid growled. Dumbledore had not taken his bright blue eyes off Lucius Malfoy's cold gray ones.

"However." Dumbledore continued, speaking very slowly and clearly so that none of them could miss a word. "You will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." For a second, Hope was almost sure Dumbledore's eyes flickered toward the corner where she, Regina and Cassie stood hidden.

"Admirable sentiments." Mr Malfoy told him, bowing. "We shall all miss your, er, highly individual way of running things, Albus, and only hope that your successor will manage to prevent any, ah... killings." He strode to the cabin door, opened it and bowed Dumbledore out. Fudge, fiddling with his bowler, waited for Hagrid to go ahead of him, but Hagrid stood his ground, took a deep breath, and said carefully:

"If anyone wanted ter find out some stuff, all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the spiders. That'd lead 'em right! That's all I'm sayin'." Fudge stared at him in amazement. "All right, I'm comin'." Hagrid pulled on his moleskin overcoat. But as he was about to follow Fudge through the door, he stopped again and said loudly: "An' someone'll need ter feed Fang while I'm away."

The door banged shut. Regina ripped off the Invisibility Cloak, crumpled it and threw it on the nearest chair.

"We're in trouble now... No Dumbledore. They might as well close the school tonight. There'll be an attack a day with him gone."

Fang started howling, scratching at the closed door.

* * *

Summer crept onto the grounds and the castle; the sky and lake alike turned periwinkle blue and flowers large as cabbages burst into bloom in the greenhouses. But with no Hagrid visible from the castle windows, striding the grounds with Fang at his heels, the scene didn't look right to Hope. No better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.

The girls had tried to visit Hermes in the hospital wing, but visitors were banned.

"We're taking no more chances." Madam Pomfrey told them severely through a crack in the infirmary door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off..."

With Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows. There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled.

Hope constantly repeated Dumbledore's final words to herself.

"I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me... Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." But what good were these words? Who exactly were they supposed to ask for help, when everyone was just as confused and scared as they were?

Hagrid's hint about the spiders was far easier to understand. The trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow. Hope looked everywhere she went. They were hampered, of course, by the fact that they weren't allowed to wander off on their own but had to move around the castle in a pack with the other Gryffindors. Most of their fellow students seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but Hope found it very irksome.

Finally, during Herbology, Hope spotted some. Several large spiders were scuttling over the ground on the other side of the glass, moving in an unnaturally straight line as though taking the shortest route to a prearranged meeting.

Hope hit Cassie over the hand with her pruning shears.

"Ow! What?" Hope pointed out the spiders, following their progress with her eyes screwed up against the sun. They were heading for the Forbidden Forest. They couldn't follow them then, of course, but they finally had a place to start.

During their next class, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Lockhart was nothing short of buoyant as he bounded into the room.

"Come now." He cried, beaming around him. "Why all these long faces?"People swapped exasperated looks, but nobody answered. "Don't you people realize the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away-."

"Says who?" A Gryffindor, Dean Thomas, asked loudly.

"My dear young man, the Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty." Lockhart told him, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.

"Oh, yes he would." Regina snapped, even more loudly than Dean.

"I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Ms. Weasley." Lockhart said in a self-satisfied tone. Regina started to say that she didn't think so, somehow, but stopped in mid-sentence when Hope kicked her hard under the desk.

But Lockhart's disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he had always thought Hagrid was no good, his confidence that the whole business was now at an end, irritated Hope so much that she yearned to throw Gadding with Ghouls right in Lockhart's stupid face. Instead she contented herself with scrawling a note to Regina and Cassie:

 _Let's do it tonight._

Regina swallowed hard but closed her eyes, steeled herself and nodded to Hope. Cassie turned a shade paler, but nodded vigorously in agreement.

Hope slouched down in her chair. Now, all they had to do was survive Lockhart's class before they journeyed into the most dangerous parts of the Hogwarts grounds...


	49. Aragog

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hope and Cassie used the Marauders Map and Invisibility cloak to dodge teachers that night all the way up to the Gryffindor common room. Regina was waiting, peeking out the portrait every couple of seconds, and she hurriedly ducked underneath the cloak with them.

"'Course." Regina began abruptly as they strode across the black grass. "We might get to the forest and find there's nothing to follow. Those spiders might not've been going there at all. I know you thought it looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but..." Her voice trailed away hopefully.

They reached Hagrid's house, sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows. Hope pushed open the door and Fang went mad at the sight of them. Regina hastily grabbed a treacle toffee from the tin on the mantle-piece and fed it to him to glue his jaws together before he woke up the whole castle.

"Ready?" Hope asked, dumping her cloak and map on the table. They wouldn't need the cloak in the pitch-black forest and the map didn't depict the forest. "C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk." Hope patted her leg and Fang bounded happily out of the house behind them, dashed to the edge of the forest, and lifted his leg against a large sycamore tree.

Hope took out her wand, murmured 'Lumos' and a tiny light appeared at the end of it, just enough to let them watch the path for signs of spiders. Cassie did the same and Regina started to, but then put her wand back in her pocket.

"I'd light mine too, but it might blow up."

Hope tapped Regina on the shoulder, pointing at the grass. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the wand-light into the shade of the trees.

"Okay." Regina sighed as though resigned to the worst, hugging herself through her Weasley sweater. "I'm ready. Let's go."

So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the forest. By the glow of Harry's wand, they followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. They walked behind them for about twenty minutes, not speaking, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves. Cassie's designer shoes weren't exactly made for trekking through the forest and she tripped several times. Regina whimpered a few times when a spider got too close and Hope repeatedly had to look around for Fang, not wanting to loose Hagrid's dog when they'd been trusted to look after him.

Hope paused and the other two ran into her back. There was a dark shape in front of them... With a start, she realized it was her motorcycle. She had forgotten about her and Regina's less than normal way of getting to school that year.

"Regina, look!" She pointed out the vehicle in excitement.

"I had forgotten about that." Regina admitted, creeping closer.

"Is that the flying one?" Cassie questioned curiously.

"I only have one." Hope shot back.

While they had been talking, their spider guides had left the path. She tried to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside their little sphere of light was pitch-black. She had never been that deep into the forest before. She could vividly remember Hagrid advising her not to leave the forest path last time she'd been in here. But Hagrid was miles away now, probably sitting in a cell in Azkaban, and he had also said to follow the spiders.

Something wet touched Hope's hand and she jumped backward, crushing Regina's foot, but it was only Fang's nose. She let out the breath that had gotten caught in her throat and patted his head.

"What d'you reckon?" She asked her friends.

"We've come this far." Regina whispered.

So they followed the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. They couldn't move very quickly now; there were tree roots and stumps in their way, barely visible in the near blackness. Hope could feel Fang's hot breath on her hand, which was comforting, even though she knew Fang was a coward.

More than once, they had to stop, so that Hope could crouch down and find the spiders in the wand-light. They walked on, losing track of the time. After a while, they noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downward, though the trees were as thick as ever.

Hope looked over at the other two.

"Are we even following the right spiders?" She wondered aloud. Regina didn't speak. She didn't move. She just stared at something behind Hope, ten feet off the forest floor, her face livid with terror. Cassie was right beside her, jaw dropped.

Hope didn't even have time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly she felt something long and hairy seize her around the middle and lift her off the ground so that she was hanging face-down. Struggling, terrified, she heard more clicking, and saw Cassie's dress shoes and Regina's sneakers leave the ground, too. She heard Fang whimpering and howling.

The next moment, she was being swept away into the dark trees. Head hanging, Hope saw that what had hold of her was marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching her tightly below a pair of shining black pincers. Behind her, she could hear more of the creatures, no doubt carrying her friends. They were moving into the very heart of the forest.

Hope could hear Fang fighting to free himself from a third monster, whining loudly, but Hope couldn't have yelled even if she had wanted to. She seemed to have left her voice behind, not even able to sarcastically yell at her friends for the wonderful warning they'd given her.

Craning her neck sideways, she realized that they had reached the ridge of a vast hollow. The hollow that had been cleared of trees, so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene she had ever laid eyes on. Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic. The massive specimen that was carrying Hope made its way down the steep slope toward a misty, domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.

Hope fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released her. Cassie, Regina and Fang thudded down next to her. Fang wasn't howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot. Regina looked exactly like Hope felt. Her mouth was stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and her eyes were popping. Cassie was hugging herself, shaking with tears running down her face.

Hope suddenly realized that the spider that had dropped her was saying something. It had been hard to tell, because he clicked his pincers with every word he spoke.

"Aragog!" It called. "Aragog!"

And from the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was gray in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white. He was blind.

"What is it?" He asked, clicking his pincers rapidly.

"Men." The spider who had caught Hope clicked.

"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog questioned, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.

"Strangers."

"Kill them." Aragog clicked fretfully. "I was sleeping..."

"We're friends of Hagrid's!" Hope screamed urgently. _Click, click, click_ went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow. Aragog paused.

"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before." He said slowly.

"Hagrid's in trouble. That's why we've come." Hope panted, feeling as though she could use a paper bag to breathe into.

"In trouble?" Hope thought she heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"

Hope pushed herself to her shaking feet. Fang cowered behind her legs, whining loudly still. Her friends were still on the ground, Regina still frozen in terror and Cassie looking like she was about to start sobbing and begging for her life. It wouldn't have been a bad idea...

"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a... a something on students. They've taken him to Azkaban." Aragog clicked his pincers furiously and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders. It was like applause, except applause didn't usually make Hope feel sick with fear.

"But that was years ago." Aragog said fretfully. "Years and years ago. I remember it well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free."

"And you... you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?"

"I!" Aragog clicked angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table. Hagrid is my good friend, and a good man. When I was discovered and blamed for the death of a girl, he protected me. I have lived here in the forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness..." Hope screwed up the remainder of her courage.

"So you never... never attacked anyone?"

"Never." The old spider croaked. "It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human. The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom. I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the dark and the quiet..."

"But then... Do you know what did kill that girl? Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again-." Her words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; large black shapes shifted all around him.

"The thing that lives in the castle is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving about the school."

"What is it?" Hope asked urgently. More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be closing in.

"We do not speak of it!" Aragog told her fiercely. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times."

Hope didn't want to press the subject, not with the spiders pressing closer on all sides. Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward the girls and Fang.

"We'll just go, then." Hope called desperately to Aragog, hearing leaves rustling behind him.

"Go?" Aragog repeated slowly. "I think not... My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid, on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Good-bye, friend of Hagrid."

Hope spun around. Feet away, towering above her, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads.

"Expulso!" The spell shot from Cassie's wand so suddenly than both Hope and Regina screamed in surprise. The wall of spiders exploded outwards, spiders and pieces of spiders flying everywhere. Regina's scream continued to any impressively annoying amount of time.

"Run!" Hope yelled, grabbing Regina's arm and hauling her to her feet.

Regina took off with Fang, both moving faster up the steep hill that Hope had thought possible. She and Cassie scrambled after them with the same type of desperate speed, hearing the clicking of spiders get closer and closer behind them. Grabbing an exposed root to haul herself upwards, Hope pointed her wand blindly over her shoulder.

"Expelliarmus!"

"Stupefy!" Cassie shrieked, waving her wand under her arm just as blindly.

"What does that do?" Hope asked, as Cassie had used it in their previous year as well, yet it had never been in any of their books as of yet.

"Gets rids of spiders, hopefully!" The blonde shot back as they made it up the hill. Regina and Fang were still running off in the distance; Hope and Cassie could only try and catch up, still shooting spells blindly over their shoulders at the army chasing them.

"Lacarnum Inflamarae!" Fire shot from Cassie's wand for a few seconds and Hope thought she heard the spiders retreating a little ways.

"Lumos Solem." Hot, white light shot out of Hope's wand towards the spiders.

"HOPE, CASSIE!" Regina's scream made them run even faster, if that was possible. When they caught up to the red-head, she was leaning over Hope's motorcycle.

"Perfect." Hope said breathlessly. She clambered onto the seat. Regina slid in behind her, arms locking painfully tight around Hope's waist. Cassie half-jumped half-fell into the sidecar and grabbed Fang's collar to haul him onto her lap.

Hope started the motorcycle as spiders began to catch up to them. Revving it, Hope sent the motorcycle crashing through the undergrowth. The trees were too thick to try and flew through and, to be perfectly honest, Hope wasn't sure she was thinking too straight after their little adventure. They sped along, Hope barely dodging the trees that seemed to appear out of nowhere in the darkness. She didn't look behind her to see if the spiders were still following; she didn't want to know.

They bumped along over roots, trying to duck the branches that clawed at their faces and hair. Hope had only a vague idea of what direction they were going and was very pleasantly surprised when they suddenly burst out of the forest onto the lawn near Hagrid's hut.

Hope braked as slowly as her panic would allow and they slowed to a halt right beside the hut. Fang shot out of the side-car and barged straight through Hagrid's door, tail between his legs. Hope felt Regina fall side-ways off the seat and saw her lying on her back in the grass, as frozen as if she was petrified herself.

Cassie and Hope shakily got off the motorcycle. They were sweaty, dirty and blood was trickling out cuts on their faces and hands from the sharp branches of the forest. But they were alive, which was an improvement from what they thought they fate would have been just moments before.

Hope hid the motorcycle once more behind a tree at the very edge of the forest; she didn't feel like going any deeper. As she walked back to Hagrid's hut, she saw Regina being violently sick in the pumpkin patch. Hope wasn't great at comforting people on her best days, so she just walked past Regina with a muttered comment about how she should pull her hair back. Slipping into Hagrid's hut, she found Cassie and Fang. Fang was huddled underneath a blanket in his basket, shaking and whimpering. The poor dog was probably going to have nightmares for the rest of his life... Cassie was curled up in a chair, watching her shaking hands with numb fascination.

Hope grabbed her map and invisibility cloak off the table, hugging them to her chest as if they would protect her from the nightmarish scene that had just unfolded. A couple of seconds later, Regina stumbled into the hut, wiping her mouth on her sleeve.

"Follow the spiders." She mocked weakly. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive."

"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his." Hope put in.

"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" Regina cried, thumping the wall of the cabin. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!"

"What was the point of sending us in there in the first place?" Cassie wondered aloud from her spot in the chair.

"Now, we know that Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He was innocent." Hope reminded them. Regina snorted loudly; evidently hatching Aragog in a cupboard wasn't her idea of being innocent.

The girls sat in Hagrid's hut in silence, still trying to calm down. Hope tried to refocus her thoughts on the important things. They had hit dead ends everywhere. Riddle had caught the wrong person, the Heir of Slytherin had got off, and no one could tell whether it was the same person, or a different one, who had opened the Chamber this time. There was nobody else to ask. Aragog hadn't answered any of their questions.

Hope suddenly looked up from the floor, a thought occurring to her.

"That girl who died. Aragog said she was found in a bathroom. What if she never left the bathroom? What if she's still there?" She looked between her two friends at Cassie's wondrous expression and Regina's confused one.

"You don't think..."

"Moaning Myrtle?"


	50. In Plain Sight All Along

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

 **A/N 50 chapters! That's some sort of milestone, isn't it? We're almost done with 2nd year now (about four/five chapters left, I think, if that). I'm currently working on Prisoner of Azkaban and I'm attempting to make the chapters more interesting and deviate more from the canon material, as people have pointed out that I stick too close to the original chapters. Thank you to everyone who has continued to read even when the chapters weren't that interesting. I hope you continue to read moving forward.**

* * *

All those times they had been in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and the answer had been just three stalls away... It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. Escaping their teachers long enough to sneak into the bathroom right next to the scene of the first attack looked be almost impossible.

Exams were coming up as well. It surprised all the students, who would've figured the exams would be canceled in light of everything that had happened. But, as Professor McGonagall sternly reminded them all, the whole point of keeping Hogwarts open was so that the students could receive their education.

Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast:

"I have good news." The Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.

"Dumbledore's coming back!" Several people yelled joyfully.

"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" A girl at the Ravenclaw table squealed.

"Quidditch matches are back on!" The captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team shouted.

When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall continued:

"Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit." There was an explosion of cheering.

Hermes would be back and, knowing Hermes, would have the answer to all their problems. Although, he might just go insane knowing he'd missed so many classes with exams so close. It might be kinder to leave him petrified until the end of the school year...

* * *

Hope knew the whole mystery might be solved by Hermes tomorrow with or without their help, but she wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up. To her delight it did, mid-morning, when they were being led to the Gryffindor-Slytherin History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart.

Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.

"Mark my words." He said, ushering them around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be 'it was Hagrid'. Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."

"I agree, sir." Hope told him, batting her eyelashes at him. Regina dropped her books in surprise and she and Cassie had to scramble to pick them up before they were trampled on.

"Thank you, Hope." Lockhart said graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night..."

"That's right." Regina agreed, catching on. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go-."

"You know, Weasley, I think I will. I really should go and prepare my next class..." He hurried off.

"Prepare his class." Regina sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."

"I think his hair looks lovely."

"You would."

They let the rest of the Gryffindors and Slytherins walk ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme...

"Potter! Weasley! Malfoy! What are you doing?" It was Professor McGonagall and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines. While Regina was stammering, trying to get out an answer and Cassie was looking like a deer in the headlights, Hope quickly lied:

"We wanted to see Hermes. We haven't seen him for ages, Professor, and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and not to worry..." She tried to squeeze out a few fake tears for effect, but it didn't seem necessary.

"Of course." She said in a strangely croaky voice. Hope, amazed, saw there was a tear glistening in her beady eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Mrs. Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."

The trio walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose. Although they had wanted to go Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, they had no choice but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermes. It wasn't a bad idea anyway; they did miss him, even though Regina wouldn't admit and Cassie refused to speak of it.

At the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.

"There's just no point talking to a Petrified person." She told them and they had to admit she had a point when they'd taken their seats next to Hermes. It was plain that Hermes didn't have the faintest inkling that he had visitors and that they might just as well tell his bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.

"Wonder if he did see the attacker, though?" Regina said, looking sadly at Hermes's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know..."

But Hope wasn't looking at Hermes's face. She was more interested in his right hand. It lay clenched on top of his blankets, and bending closer, she saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside his fist. Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, she pointed it out to Regina and Cassie.

"Try and get it out." Regina whispered, shifting her chair so that she blocked Hope from Madam Pomfrey's view.

It was no easy task. Hermes's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Hope was sure she was going to tear it or break Hermes's fingers getting it. While Cassie and Regina kept watch she tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free. It was a page torn from a very old library book. Hope smoothed it out eagerly on her knee and her friends leaned close to read it, too.

 _Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it._

And beneath that, a single word had been written, in a hand Hope recognized as Hermes's:

 _Pipes_.

It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in Hope's brain.

"This is it!" She cried and was immediately hushed by her friends. She continued, quietly. "This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk. A giant serpent! That's why I've been hearing that voice all over the place and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue." She looked around at the beds of people around them. "The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died... because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin... Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again... and Hermes and that Ravenclaw girl were found with a mirror next to them. Hermes had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything he warned the first person he met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror and..."

Her friends' jaws had dropped.

"It makes sense! Salazar Slytherin made the house emblem a serpent..." Cassie murmured thoughtfully.

"But what about Mrs. Norris?" Regina whispered eagerly. Hope thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween.

"The water..." She said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection."

She scanned the page in his hand eagerly. The more he looked at it, the more it made sense. Hermes had it all figured out... and they had let it sit, in plain sight, for weeks on end.

"The crowing of the rooster is fatal to it!" She read aloud. "Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! Spiders flee before it! It all fits!"

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place? A giant snake? Someone would've seen-." Regina began in protest. Hope, however, pointed at the word Hermes had scribbled at the foot of the page.

"Pipes. It's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls-." Hope wondered how big the plumping of Hogwarts was. Before she could get too far into that train of thought, Cassie suddenly grabbed her arm.

"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets! Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. That's why she was killed there, that's how it's using the plumping. The Chamber of Secrets is in that bathroom, or least the entrance is."

The three sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it. Hermes had had it all figured out and now they knew it all as well.

"This means..." Hope began slowly. "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."

"What're we going to do? Should we go straight to McGonagall?" Regina asked.

"Let's go to the staffroom. She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."

The trio ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staffroom. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. The three of them paced around it, too excited to sit down. But the bell to signal break never came.

Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified:

"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please."

Hope wheeled around to stare at Regina and Cassie.

"Not another attack? Not now?"

"What'll we do?"

"Go back to our dormitories?"

"No." Hope told them, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to her left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."

They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead and the staffroom door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.

"It has happened." She told the silent staffroom. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said:

"How can you be sure?"

"The Heir of Slytherin left another message. Right underneath the first one." Professor McGonagall told them, looking very white. 'His skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever'." Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who is it?" Madam Hooch asked, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"

"Gavin Weasley."

Hope felt Regina slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside her, suddenly trembling; Cassie clamped a hand over her mouth and looked over at Hope, wide-eyed. Hope just shook her head; it didn't make any sense to her. Why would the Heir of Slytherin take Gavin? Young, shy, _innocent_ Gavin Weasley?

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow." Professor McGonagall continued. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said.." The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Hope was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart and he was beaming.

"So sorry. Dozed off. What have I missed?" He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

"Just the man... The very man. A boy has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last." Lockhart blanched.

"That's right, Gilderoy." Professor Sprout chipped in. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"I, well... I..." Lockhart sputtered.

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" Professor Flitwick piped up.

"D-did I? I don't recall-."

"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested." Snape put in. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?" Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.

"I... I really never... you may have misunderstood-."

"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy." Professor McGonagall told him. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."

Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.

"V-very well... I'll... I'll be in my office, getting... getting ready." And he left the room.

"Right." Professor McGonagall said, nostrils flared. "That's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories." The teachers rose and left, one by one.

* * *

Hope and Cassie walked Regina back up to Gryffindor tower. Although they were Slytherins, no one batted an eye when they came into the Gryffindor common room and sat with the rest of the Weasley's in a corner.

Percy had gone to send an owl to their parents and had then disappeared to his dormitory. Fred and George weren't all smiles and jokes as usual, but looked as though they were going to be sick. It was the first time Hope had seen either of them hug Regina without teasing her about something before or after. Near sunset, they both went up to their dormitory as well, leaving the girls alone in the common room.

"He was a pureblood. Why would it take him?" Regina moaned, speaking for the first time since they had gone to the staffroom.

Hope could see the sun sinking, blood-red, below the skyline. This was the worst she had ever felt.

"Hope, Cassie... D'you think there's any chance at all he's not... you know..." Hope didn't know what to say. She couldn't see how Gavin could still be alive.

"We need to go to Lockhart." Cassie said suddenly. They both looked over at her.

"Your future boyfriend isn't going to help us." Regina sneered.

"He's going to be searching for the Chamber of Secrets. We know where it is, to a point, and what's inside. We need to tell him." Neither Hope nor Regina had any better ideas, so they agreed. The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room and left through the portrait hole.

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps. Hope knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.

"Oh, Ms. Potter, Ms. Weasley, Ms. Malfoy." He said, opening the door a bit wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment. If you would be quick-."

"Professor, we've got some information for you. We think it'll help you."

"Er... well... it's not terribly..." The side of Lockhart's face that they could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean, well... all right-." He opened the door and they entered. His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade-green, lilac, midnight blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.

"Going somewhere?" Hope asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, yes, well... Urgent call. Unavoidable. Got to go-."

"What about my brother?" Regina snarled, looking ready to pounce and tear Lockhart limb from limb.

"Well, as to that... most unfortunate-." Lockhart stammered, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I-."

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" Hope told him. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!"

"Well... I must say, when I took the job..." Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "Nothing in the job description... Didn't expect-."

"You mean you're running away. Like a coward." Hope hissed.

"But, Professor, after all that stuff you did in your books-." Cassie began.

"Books can be misleading." Lockhart responded delicately.

"You wrote them!" Cassie looked as though her best friend had stabbed her in the back.

"My dear girls." Lockhart started, straightening up and frowning at them. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a hairy chin. I mean, come on-."

"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" Hope looked at him incredulously. She had been right, from that first comment during the class with the pixies. He hadn't done any of the things in his books. He was a fraud. A cowardly fraud, at that.

"It's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Hope. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog." He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them. "Let's see. I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left." He pulled out his wand and turned to them. "Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book-."

Hope reached her wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when Hope bellowed:

"Expelliarmus!" Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air. Regina caught it and promptly flung it out of the open window.

"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one." Hope mocked, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside.

Lockhart was looking up at her, feeble once more. Hope was still pointing her wand at him and Cassie had joined her with her own wand, looking furious.

"What d'you want me to do? I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do." Hope just smirked and grabbed him by the collar, hauling him to his feet.

"You're in luck. We know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."


	51. Riddle

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, straight to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They sent Lockhart in first. Hope was pleased to see that he was shaking.

Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.

"Oh, it's you." She said when she saw Hope. "What do you want this time?"

"To ask you how you died." Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.

"Ooooh, it was dreadful." She said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then... I died."

"How?" Hope pressed.

"No idea. I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away..." She looked dreamily at Hope. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?"

"Somewhere there." Myrtle responded, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.

The girls hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face. It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Hope saw it: scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.

"That tap's never worked." Myrtle called brightly as Hope tried to turn it.

"Hope, say something. Something in Parseltongue." Regina urged.

"But..." Hope thought hard. The only times she'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when she'd been faced with a real snake. She stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.

"Open up." She looked at her friends, who shook their heads.

"English."

Hope looked back at the snake, willing herself to believe it was alive. If she moved her head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.

"Open up." Except that the words weren't what he heard; a strange hissing had escaped him, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.

"You're really creepy sometimes, you know that?" Cassie whispered to her.

"Well, I am a Slytherin..." Hope whispered back.

"Why are we whispering?" Regina questioned.

"You want to attract the attention of a giant snake?" Hope hissed back. She looked back at the pipe. "I'm going down there."

"So am I. Gavin's down there." Regina reminded her, clenching her fists with a determined look on her face.

"And I'm not staying up here alone, worrying you're dying somewhere in the plumbing." Cassie added.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me." Lockhart called over, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just-." He reached for the doorknob, but three wands were immediately pointed at him.

"You can go first." Regina snarled. White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.

"Girls..." He said, his voice feeble. "Girls, what good will it do?"

"We don't have to run faster than a snake. We just have to run faster than the guy behind us." Hope told him with a cruel smile. She kicked him, hard, in the butt and he toppled into the pipe, quickly sliding out of sight.

Hope followed quickly. She lowered herself slowly into the pipe, then let go. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. She could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and she knew that she was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind her she could hear Regina and Cassie, thudding slightly at the curves.

And then, just as she had begun to worry about what would happen when she hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and she shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost.

Hope stood aside as her friends came whizzing out of the pipe, too. Regina tossed her braided hair back as she looked around, eyes wide. Cassie got slowly to her feet, looking like she was going to be sick as she saw herself covered in slime.

"We must be miles under the school." Hope's voice echoed in the black tunnel.

"Under the lake, probably." Regina agreed, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls. All four of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

"Lumos!" Hope muttered to her wand and it lit again. "C'mon." She said to the others.

Off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor. Hope took the lead, lighting the way. Lockhart was behind her, with Regina and Cassie bringing up the rear, Cassie's wand lit up as brightly as Hope's. The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.

"Any sign of movement, close your eyes." Hope whispered over her shoulder to the others.

But the tunnel was quiet as the grave and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Regina stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Hope lowered her wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard not to imagine what Gavin might look like if they found him, Hope led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.

"Hope, there's something ahead." Cassie whispered in horror. They froze, watching. Hope could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's asleep." She breathed, glancing back at the other three. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Hope turned back to look at the thing, her heart beating so fast it hurt. Very slowly, her eyes as narrow as she could make them and still see, Hope edged forward with her wand held high.

The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

"Blimey." Regina said weakly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way and he looked as though he had fainted.

"Get up." Regina said sharply, pointing her wand at Lockhart. Lockhart got to his feet and, lightning fast, he dived at Regina, knocking her to the ground. Hope and Cassie jumped forward to stop him, but too late: Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Regina's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face. Regina sat up her elbows on the ground, glaring hatefully at their teacher.

"The adventure ends here, girls!" He announced. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the boy and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of his mangled body. Say good-bye to your memories!" He raised Regina's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled: "Obliviate!" The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb.

Great chunks of rock rained down from the ceiling. Hope ducked and rolled, rolling straight into the snake skin. She frantically freed herself and rolled away again, only to look and see she was alone, staring at a solid wall of broken rock.

"Regina! Cassie!" She screamed, pushing herself to her feet and running over to the rocks.

"We're here!" Came Regina's muffled voice from the other side. "We're okay. This git's not, though. He got blasted by the wand." There was a dull thud and an 'ow'; it sounded as though Regina had kicked Lockhart.

"We can't get through!" Cassie called, sounding panicked. There was another thud and another 'ow' from behind the rocks. Hope wondered if Regina's goal was to kick Lockhart to death.

"We're wasting time." Hope told them. "Wait with Lockhart. I'll go on. If I'm not back in an hour..." Hope trailed off. If she wasn't back in an hour... What? Could Cassie and Regina even find another way out? Was there another way out? Was there really anything any of them could do anymore?

"We'll see if we can shift some of these rocks." Regina's voice came, sounding a little shaky. "So you can... get back through..."

"See you in a bit." Hope tried to inject some confidence into her voice before she set off alone past the giant snake skin.

Soon the distant noise of Regina and Cassie straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Hope's body was tingling unpleasantly. She wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what she'd find when it did. Her knuckles were white and her fingers were sore from gripping her wand so tightly. And then, at last, as she crept around yet another bend, she saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

Hope approached, her throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive. She could guess what she had to do. She cleared her throat and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.

"Open." She commanded in a low, faint hiss. The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight to reveal another short pipe. Hope crawled inside, trying to calm her racing heart. Within a few feet, she found herself at a ladder. Clambering down it, she looked around at the Chamber of Secrets.

She was standing on a stone walkway; water rose to the edges of it on either side and snake statues rose from the water in the most disturbing way possible. At the end of the walkway was a large semi-circular stone platform, facing a large stone head. Below it's mouth, on the floor, lay a figure, face-down with tomato red hair.

"Gavin!" Hope gasped aloud. She sprinted down the walkway towards the boy. She dropped to her knees beside the body and set her wand aside to roll Gavin over. His face was white as marble and just as cold, yet his eyes were closed, so he wasn't Petrified. Hope felt desperately for a pulse on his neck. When she found one, albeit a weak one, she nearly cried in relief. "Gavin, wake up. Come on, wake up!"

"He won't wake." Hope jumped and spun around on her knees. A tall, black-haired boy was standing off to the side, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Hope were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him.

"Tom Riddle?" The boy nodded. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen. "Are you a ghost?"

"A memory." Riddle correct quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years." He pointed toward the floor near the statue mouth. Lying open there was the little black diary Hope had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She wanted to demand more answers, but she had more pressing matters to attend to.

She tried to haul Gavin up so she could drag him, but he was too heavy for her alone. She was fast when she wanted to be, but she had never been very strong. Gavin was as heavy as she herself was; she couldn't drag her own body-weight easily. She looked at Tom Riddle imploringly.

"Help me, please." Riddle didn't move.

Hope, sweating, managed to hoist Gavin half off the floor, and bent to pick up her wand again. But her wand had gone. Slowly, she looked over at Riddle. He was twiddling the wand between his fingers. She lowered Gavin back onto the cold, stone floor and stood up straight.

"Give me my wand. If the basilisk comes-."

"It won't come until it is called." Riddle told her calmly.

"Called by whom?" She asked through clenched teeth.

"I've waited a long time for this, Hope Potter. For the chance to see you. To speak to you."

"You have to have my wand to speak to me?" She asked, trying to look as though she was calm and not planning on punching him in the face the first chance she got. "What did you do to Gavin?" She added; he was the priority here. He was dying, she knew it.

"Well, that's an interesting question. And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Gavin Weasley is like this is because he spilled all his secrets to an invisible stranger."

"The diary." Hope realized.

"Little Gavin's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all his pitiful worries and woes. How his big brothers tease him, how his only sister ignores him in favor of her friends. How he didn't think beautiful, famous Hope Potter would ever like him." All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Hope's face. There was an almost hungry look in them. "It's very boring, listening to the troubles of an eleven-year-old boy. But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. I was the best friend poor Gavin had never had." Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Hope's neck. "If I say it myself, Hope, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Gavin poured out his soul to me and his soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of his deepest fears, his darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Mr. Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Mr. Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into him..."

"What did you do?" Hope demanded.

"It was Gavin Weasley who opened the Chamber of Secrets. He strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. He set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods and the Squib's cat."

"He wouldn't."

"But he did. Of course, he didn't know what he was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen his new diary entries... far more interesting, they became... _Dear Tom, I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. But I don't think it's paint-."_

"Stop!" Hope cut him off. "You sick little-."

"It took a very long time for stupid little Gavin to stop trusting his diary." Riddle continued as though she hadn't spoken. "But he finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it in the very place he found himself coming back to, again and again... And that's where you came in, Hope. You found it and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet..."

"You've met me." Hope told him. "Leave Gavin alone."

"It's already done." Riddle said carelessly. "Gavin told me all about you. Eyes as green as a fresh pickled toad. Hair as red as a red brick road. And, of course, your fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Hope's forehead and their expression grew hungrier. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust-."

"Hagrid is my friend! You framed him, didn't you?"

"It was my word against Hagrid's, Hope. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student... On the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls... But I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance! As though Hagrid had the brains, or the power! Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed... Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did..."

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you."

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled. I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

"But you haven't finish it. You just caused a minor annoyance. No death and the people petrified will be fine tomorrow morning." Hope told him, growing in confidence. If she could deal with a guy with two faces, she could deal with a sixteen year old with some kind of sick, twisted hero complex.

"Haven't I already told you?" Riddle snapped at her. "Killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore. For many months now, my new target has been _you._ Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Gavin who was writing to me, not you. He saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it and I repeated all his secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until you left your bag somewhere and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Gavin had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery. Particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. And Gavin had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue... So I made Gavin write his own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. He struggled and fought and became very boring. But there isn't much life left in him... He put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last... I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Hope."

"Long walks on the beach. Yes. No. To get to the other side." Hope told him dryly. "Wand. Now." She growled, holding out her hand. Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy.

"How is it that you, a little girl with no extraordinary magical talent, managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?" There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.

"Why do you care? I thought you were all gun-ho about Slytherin, not Voldemort."

"Voldemort is my past, present, and future, Hope Potter..." He pulled Hope's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words:

 _Tom Marvolo riddle_

Then he waved the wand once and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:

 _I am Lord Voldemort_


	52. The Horror Within

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

Hope stared at the words in shock. She was looking at Voldemort. Not on the back of someone's head, but there, as close to in the flesh as she'd ever seen him. The sixteen year old, unfortunately and disgustingly good looking, version of him. Slowly, she turned to look at him.

"You had too much time on your hands as a child." Was the first thing that popped out of her mouth.

"It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Hope... I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

"You're not."

"Not what?"

"You're not the greatest sorcerer in the world. Albus Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer in the world! You were always scared of Dumbledore. You never attacked Hogwarts because you were afraid of him. Besides, the greatest sorcerer in the world doesn't get killed by a one-year-old little girl." The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" He hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Hope retorted. Just because Dumbledore was no longer headmaster didn't mean he was gone forever. Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.

Music was coming from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Hope's scalp and made his heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Hope felt it vibrating inside his own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest statue.

A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle. A second later, the bird was flying straight at Hope. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at her feet, then landed heavily on her shoulder. As it folded its great wings, Hope looked up and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and a beady black eye. The bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm next to Hope's cheek, gazing steadily at Riddle.

"That's a phoenix..." Riddle muttered, staring shrewdly back at it.

"Fawkes?" Hope breathed and she felt the bird's golden claws squeeze her shoulder gently.

"And that..." Riddle continued, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped. "That's the old school Sorting Hat." So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Hope's feet.

Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark Chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once.

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Hope Potter? Do you feel safe now?" Hope didn't answer. She might not see what use Fawkes or the Sorting Hat were, but she was no longer alone and she waited for Riddle to stop laughing with her courage mounting. "To business, Hope. Twice, in your past, in my future, we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk, the longer you stay alive."

"The first time, my mother, my _common muggle-born_ mother, saved me. Because I was loved. More than you ever were. Then, the second time, it was easy. You were a wreck. You were barely alive. That's where all your power got you. An ugly, pathetic, sorry little-." Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile.

"So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful counter charm. I can see now... There is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, alone in the muggle world. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. But after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know."

"Want to know how I kicked you in the balls last year?"

"Hope, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Hope Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give her..."

He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked away.

Hope, fear spreading up her numb legs, watched Riddle stop between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed, but Hope understood what he was saying:

" _Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four_." Slytherin's gigantic stone mouth was opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.

Hope backed away until she hit the dark Chamber wall and, as she shut her eyes tight, she felt Fawkes' wing sweep her cheek as he took flight. She wanted to yell at him to stay, but what chance did Fawkes have against a giant basilisk?

Something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Hope felt it shudder; she knew what was happening. She could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth. Then she heard Riddle's hissing voice:

" _Kill her_." The basilisk was moving toward Hope; she could hear its heavy body slithering heavily across the dusty floor. Eyes still tightly shut, Hope began to run blindly sideways, her hands outstretched, feeling her way. Voldemort was laughing behind her.

Hope tripped. She fell hard onto the stone, chin first, and tasted blood. She knew the serpent was barely feet from her; she could hear it coming.

There was a loud, explosive spitting sound right above her and then something heavy hit Hope so hard that she was smashed into the wall. Waiting for fangs to sink through her body, she heard more mad hissing, something thrashing wildly off the pillars. She couldn't help it: she opened her eyes wide enough to squint at what was going on. The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. As Hope trembled, ready to close her eyes if it turned, she saw what had distracted the snake. Fawkes was soaring around its head and the basilisk was snapping furiously at him with fangs as long and thin as sabers. Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing Hope, and before Hope could shut her eyes, it turned. Hope looked straight into its face and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spitting in agony.

"NO!" Hope heard Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE GIRL IS BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN STILL SMELL HER! KILL HER!"

The blinded serpent swayed, confused but still deadly. Fawkes was circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes. The snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Hope ducked and something soft hit her face.

It was the sorting hat. She clutched it in her hands. What was she supposed to do with the hat? It didn't make any sense that Dumbledore would send her the hat. As she looked down at it, she saw something glittering inside it. Sticking her hand in, she grasped it and a gleaming silver sword, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.

She remembered the last time she had faced Voldemort, just a year before. She had wished she'd had either a shotgun or a sword. Well, she had her sword. Except, she had no idea what to do with it now that it was in her hands.

"KILL THE GIRL! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE GIRL IS BEHIND YOU! SNIFF, SMELL HER!"

Hope was on her feet, ready. It was a pointy object; she didn't need years of training to know that she was going to stab something. She gripped it in both hands like a baseball bat and steeled herself as she looked at the basilisk. She could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow her whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous...

It lunged blindly. Hope dodged and it hit the Chamber wall head-on. It lunged again and its forked tongue lashed Hope side. She swung the sword, more like a golf club than anything else. The forked tongue was severed from it's mouth and flopped down on the stone floor by her feet. Hope fought against her gag reflex at the sight and turned her attention back to the very much still alive and angry basilisk.

The basilisk lunged again and that time its aim was true. Hope threw her whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth. But as warm blood drenched Hope's arms, she felt a searing pain just above her elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into her arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.

Hope slid down the wall, the sword grasped weakly in one hand. She gripped the fang that was spreading poison through her body and wrenched it out of her arm. But she knew it was too late to do any good, besides her not wanting to puke anymore at the sight of a fang sticking up out of her arm. White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as she dropped the fang and watched her own blood soaking her robes, her vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color and she had to fight to stay awake.

A patch of scarlet swam past and Hope heard a soft clatter of claws beside her.

"Fawkes... Thank you." She whispered. She felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had pierced her. She could hear echoing footsteps and then a dark shadow moved in front of her.

"You're dead, Hope Potter." Riddle's came voice above her. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying." Hope blinked. Fawkes's head slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers. "I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Hope Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry."

Hope closed her eyes; even without looking everything around her seemed to be spinning.

"So ends the famous Hope Potter... Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, forsaken by her friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord she so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Hope... She bought you twelve years of borrowed time... But Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must..."

If she was dying, Hope thought, it wasn't as bad as she'd imagined. She imagined it plenty of times in her life. She had thought she'd starve to death or be beaten by other hopeless, pathetic criminals in a back alley. She had thought she'd be eaten by a three headed dog or a monster plant. She'd thought of death by troll or Voldemort or motorcycle crash. But she had never thought she'd be killed by a snake. The thought that she'd taken the foul creature out with her was enough to make her happy. She'd died fighting, like she'd always wanted.

But was she dying? It felt peaceful. The pain had ebbed away. As she opened her eyes, the Chamber came back into focus. Fawkes was still resting his head on her arm. A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wound, except that there was no wound.

"Get away, bird!" Riddle's voice came suddenly. "Get away from her! I said, get away!"

Hope raised her head. Riddle was pointing Hope's wand at Fawkes; there was a bang like a gun, and Fawkes took flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet. Hope tightened her grip on the sword and swung one-handed. It passed straight through Riddle's legs, but he still hissed and jumped backwards in surprise.

"Surprised, Tommy-boy? So am I."

"Phoenix tears... Of course. Healing powers. I forgot..." He looked at Hope's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Hope Potter... you and me..." He raised the wand.

Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Hope's lap: the diary. Without thinking, Hope raised the basilisk fang in her other hand, though she had meant to do it all along and plunged it straight into the heart of the book. There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Hope's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then... He had gone. Hope's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.

Shaking all over, Hope pulled herself up. Her head was spinning as though she'd just traveled miles by Floo powder. Slowly, she gathered together her wand and the Sorting Hat.

There came a faint moan from the end of the chamber. Gavin was stirring. As Hope hurried towards him, he sat up. His eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Hope in her blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. Then his jaw dropped and, looking as though his entire world had been destroyed in front of him, he started blabbering:

"Hope... Hope... It was _me_ -."

"I know."

"-Riddle made me but I swear I didn't mean to-."

"I know that too."

"-He took me over! How did you kill... that thing?"

"Stabbed with a sword. Pointy end goes up, snake goes down."

"Where's Riddle? The last thing I remember was him coming out of the diary-."

"It's alright-."

"I'm going to be expelled! What will mum and dad say?"

"Gavin!" He finally stopped and looked at Hope. "Come on. We need to go." She helped Gavin to his feet and they walked, exhausted and weak, back through the chamber, stepping over the coils of the dead serpent. Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. They clambered back into the tunnel and Hope heard the door shut with a soft hiss behind them.

After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached their ears.

"Regina, Cassie!" Hope yelled, speeding up. "Gavin's okay! I've got him!" She heard Regina give a strangled cheer and they turned the next bend to see her eager face staring through the sizable gap they had managed to make in the rockfall.

" _Gavin_!" Regina thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her brother through first. Fawkes swooped through the gap next.

"Where did that bird come from?" Cassie asked as she helped Hope through the hole.

"He's Dumbledore's."

"Is that... a sword?"

"Yes."

"How-?"

"Later." She cut her off. Cassie cast a sideways glance at her but nodded in agreement.

Gavin, meanwhile, was getting a talking-to from Regina that would've made Mrs. Weasley proud.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was? If I wasn't so relieved, I would kill you! You knew you weren't supposed to go anywhere alone! You knew that! What were you thinking?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Gavin blurted. Regina stared at him, fury in her eyes, for another moment but then her expression softened. She pulled Gavin into a bear-hug.

"I'm so glad you're alright. We were so worried. Me, Percy, Fred, George... We had to write mum and dad!"

"Where's Lockhart?" Hope questioned the blonde beside her. Cassie pointed back towards the way they'd originally come.

"We made him wait back there. He's a danger to himself now."

They walked back through the tunnels, led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness. All the way back at the mouth of the pipe, Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting on the floor, humming placidly to himself. As they approached, he peered up at them with a dazed sort of smile.

"Hello. Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"

"No. Just like the last thirteen times you asked!" Regina snapped at him, leading Gavin by the arm over to the mouth of the pipe.

"How are we supposed to get back up?" Hope wondered aloud. Regina shook her head, but Fawkes the phoenix had swooped past Hope and was now fluttering in front of her, his beady eyes bright in the dark. He was waving his long golden tail feathers. Hope looked uncertainly at him.

"I think he wants you to grab on. But you're too heavy-." Cassie began.

"Ouch." Hope took mock offense. Cassie smiled half-heartedly at the joke. "He's not a normal bird. Cassie, grab hold of me. Regina, of her. Gavin, you're next. Professor Lockhart-."

"He means you." Cassie told the dazed man.

"-take hold of Gavin." When everyone was holding onto each other and Hope had tucked her wand, the sorting hat and sword into her belt, she reached up and grabbed onto Fawkes' strangely hot tail feathers.

An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through her whole body and the next second, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward through the pipe. Hope could hear Lockhart dangling below him, saying:

"Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!"

The chill air was whipping through Hope's hair, and before she'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over. All five of them were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and as Lockhart straightened his hat, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place.

Myrtle goggled at them.

"You're alive." She said blankly to Hope.

"There's no need to sound so disappointed." Hope shot back.

"Where now?" Regina asked, with an anxious look at Gavin. Hope merely pointed. Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor. They strode after him, and moments later, found themselves right outside Professor McGonagall's office. Hope knocked one and then pushed the door open.


	53. A Hero's Reward

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own**

* * *

For a moment, there was dead silence as Hope, Cassie, Regina, Gavin and Lockhart stood in the doorway, covered in slime, muck and blood. Then there was a scream:

" _Gavin_!" It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire. She leaped to her feet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on their youngest son.

Hope, however, was looking past them. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Fawkes went whooshing past Hope's ear and settled on Dumbledore's shoulder, just as Hope found herself, Cassie and Regina being swept into Mrs. Weasley's tight embrace.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that." Professor McGonagall said weakly.

Mrs. Weasley let go of Hope, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it the Sorting Hat, the ruby-encrusted sword,and what remained of Riddle's diary. Then she started telling them everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour she spoke into the rapt silence: she told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermes had finally realized that she was hearing a basilisk in the pipes; how she, Regina and Cassie had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died; how she had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted her as she paused. "So you found out where the entrance was, breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way I might add, but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?"

So Hope, her voice now growing hoarse from all the talking, told them about Fawkes's timely arrival and about the Sorting Hat giving her the sword. But then she faltered. She had so far avoided mentioning Riddle's diary or Gavin. Gavin was standing with his head against Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, still looking as though she had seen everything she loved die in front of her. What if they expelled her? Hope thought in panic. Riddle's diary didn't work anymore... How could they prove it had been he who'd made him do it all?

Instinctively, Hope looked at Dumbledore, who smiled faintly, the firelight glancing off his half-moon spectacles.

"What interests me most is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Gavin, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania." Relief flooded through Hope.

"W-what's that?" Mr. Weasley asked in a stunned voice. "You-Know-Who? En-enchant Gavin? But Gavin's not... Gavin hasn't been... has he?"

"It was this diary." Hope said quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen." Dumbledore took the diary from Hope and peered keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages.

"Brilliant," He said softly. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen." He turned around to the Weasleys, who were looking utterly bewildered. "Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school, traveled far and wide, sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."

"But, Gavin... What's our Gavin got to do with... with him?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"His d-diary!" Gavin cried. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year-."

"Gavin!" Mr. Weasley said, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. Why didn't you show the diary to me or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic-."

"I d-didn't know. I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it-."

"Mr. Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away," Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. "This has been a terrible ordeal for him. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than he have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort." He strode over to the door and opened it. "Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up." He added, twinkling kindly down at him. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice. I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."

"Hermes will be okay?" Regina spoke up.

"There has been no lasting harm done, Gavin." Dumbledore assured the boy. Mrs. Weasley led Gavin out and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken. "You know, Minerva." Dumbledore continued thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall. "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"

"Right." Professor McGonagall agreed crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter, Malfoy and Weasley, shall I?"

"Certainly." She left and the three girls gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore. What exactly had Professor McGonagall meant, deal with them? Surely, surely, they weren't about to be punished? "I seem to remember telling you that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules."

Regina's mouth popped open in horror. Cassie looked as though she was about to burst into tears. Hope just stared. She'd just killed a giant snake. She didn't need to be expelled on top of it!

"Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words." Dumbledore went on, smiling. "You will all receive Special Awards for Services to the School and, let me see, yes, I think two hundred points apiece for your houses. "But one of us seems to be keeping mightily quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure. Why so modest, Gilderoy?"

Hope gave a start. She had completely forgotten about Lockhart. She turned and saw that Lockhart was standing in a corner of the room, still wearing his vague smile. When Dumbledore addressed him, Lockhart looked over his shoulder to see who he was talking to.

"Professor Dumbledore." Cassie started.

"There was an accident down in the Chamber of Secrets. Professor Lockhart-." Regina tried to pick up the story.

"Am I a professor?" Lockhart asked in mild surprise. "Goodness. I expect I was hopeless, was I?"

"He tried to do a Memory Charm and the wand backfired." Regina explained quietly to Dumbledore.

"Dear me." Dumbledore said, shaking his head, his long silver mustache quivering. "Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!"

"Sword?" Lockhart echoed dimly. "Haven't got a sword. That girl has, though." He pointed at Hope. "She'll lend you one."

"Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary, too?" Dumbledore said to Regina and Cassie. "I'd like a few more words with Hope..." Lockhart ambled out and, after a curious look at Hope, Regina and Cassie followed.

Dumbledore crossed over to sit in one of the chairs by the fire.

"Sit down, Hope." Hope sat. "First of all, Harry, I want to thank you. You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you." He stroked the phoenix, which had fluttered down onto his knee. Hope smiled awkwardly as Dumbledore watched her. "And so you met Tom Riddle. I imagine he was most interested in you...

"He said we were a lot alike."

"Did he, now?" Dumbledore was looking thoughtfully at Hope from under his thick silver eyebrows. "And what do you think, Hope?"

"I think we are." Hope admitted, turning to look at the fire inside of at Professor Dumbledore. "Both half-bloods. Both orphans. Both Slytherin's. Both speak Parselstongue-."

"You can speak Parseltongue, Hope, because Lord Voldemort, who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin, can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure."

"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Hope asked, turning to look at him once more.

"It certainly seems so."

"So I am like him, aren't I?" Hope tried to ignore the crack in her voice. She didn't want to be evil. She didn't want to be bad. But all signs pointed to her being so much like Voldemort that she wanted to be sick.

"You are very different from Tom Riddle." Dumbledore assured her. "It is our choices, Hope, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. If you want proof that you are most unlike him, I suggest you look more closely at this." Dumbledore reached across to Professor McGonagall's desk, picked up the blood-stained silver sword, and handed it to Hope. Dully, Hope turned it over, the rubies blazing in the firelight. And then she saw the name engraved just below the hilt. _Godric Gryffindor._

"Only someone who was brave and honorable could have pulled that sword out of the hat."

"But I'm not a Gryffindor."

"No, but I wouldn't say you're evil either." For a minute, neither of them spoke. Then Dumbledore pulled open one of the drawers in Professor McGonagall's desk and took out a quill and a bottle of ink. "What you need, Hope, is some food and sleep. I suggest you clean yourself up and go down to the feast, while I write to Azkaban. We need our gamekeeper back. And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too. We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?"

Hope got up and crossed to the door, thinking of how good a shower would feel. She had just reached for the handle, however, when the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall. Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face. And cowering behind his legs, heavily wrapped in bandages, was Dobby.

"Good evening, Lucius." Dumbledore said pleasantly. Mr. Malfoy almost knocked Hope over as he swept into the room. Dobby went scurrying in after him, crouching at the hem of his cloak, a look of abject terror on his face. The elf was carrying a stained rag with which he was attempting to finish cleaning Mr. Malfoy's shoes. Apparently Mr. Malfoy had set out in a great hurry, for not only were his shoes half-polished, but his usually sleek hair was disheveled. Ignoring the elf bobbing apologetically around his ankles, he fixed his cold eyes upon Dumbledore.

"So! You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts."

"Well, you see, Lucius." Dumbledore began, smiling serenely. "The other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They'd heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too... Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place." Mr. Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury.

"So, have you stopped the attacks yet?" He sneered. "Have you caught the culprit?"

"We have." Dumbledore responded, with a smile.

"Well? Who is it?" He asked sharply.

"The same person as last time, Lucius. But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary." He held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Mr. Malfoy closely.

Hope, however, was watching Dobby. The elf was doing something very odd. His great eyes fixed meaningfully on Hope, he kept pointing at the diary, then at Mr. Malfoy and then hitting himself hard on the head with his fist.

"I see..." Mr. Malfoy said slowly to Dumbledore.

"A clever plan." Dumbledore continued in a level voice, still staring Mr. Malfoy straight in the eye. "Because if Hope here." Mr. Malfoy shot Hope a swift, sharp look; she looked him right in the eye without flinch. "And her friends Regina and Cassie hadn't discovered this book, why, Gavin Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove he hadn't acted of his own free will..."

Hope watched Mr. Malfoy closely at the mention of Cassie, sure he was going to explode in anger. But Mr. Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly mask-like.

"And imagine." Dumbledore went on. "What might have happened then. The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pure-blood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own son was discovered attacking and killing Muggle-borns... Very fortunate the diary was discovered and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise." Mr. Malfoy forced himself to speak:

"Very fortunate." He said stiffly. And still, behind his back, Dobby was pointing, first to the diary, then to Lucius Malfoy, then punching himself in the head. And Hope understood. He nodded at Dobby and Dobby backed into a corner, now twisting his ears in punishment.

"Don't you want to know how Gavin got hold of that diary, Mr. Malfoy?" Hope asked in fake sweetness. Lucius Malfoy rounded on her.

"How should I know how the stupid little boy got hold of it?"

"Because you gave it to him." Hope dropped the sweet act; he didn't deserve it. "In Flourish and Blotts. You picked up his old Transfiguration book and slipped the diary inside it, didn't you? I'm just wondering if you meant it for me or him. You saw me drop my books into his cauldron. I was giving them to him and going to buy my own, but you didn't know that. So who was your target, here?" Hope saw Mr. Malfoy's white hands clench and unclench.

"Prove it." He hissed.

"Oh, no one will be able to do that." Dumbledore told him, smiling at Hope. "Not now that Riddle has vanished from the book. On the other hand, I would advise you, Lucius, not to go giving out any more of Lord Voldemort's old school things. If any more of them find their way into innocent hands, I think Arthur Weasley, for one, will make sure they are traced back to you." Lucius Malfoy stood for a moment and Hope distinctly saw his right hand twitch as though he was longing to reach for his wand. Instead, he turned to his house-elf.

"We're going, Dobby!" He wrenched open the door and as the elf came hurrying up to him, he kicked him right through it. They could hear Dobby squealing with pain all the way along the corridor. Hope glared after them, thinking hard. Then it came to her and she smiled, turning back to look at Professor Dumbledore.

"Am I free to go, Professor Dumbledore?"

"Certainly, Hope. There is a feast you should be cleaning up for."

"Of course."

Hope dashed out of the office. She could hear Dobby's squeals of pain receding around the corner. Quickly, wondering if this plan could possibly work, she yanked off her shoe and pulled off her slimy, filthy sock. Then she ran after them.

"Hey, Lucy-Boy. Heads up." She balled up the sock and threw it at Mr. Malfoy's face as he turned. He caught it, looked at it in utter disgust and threw it aside.

"You'll meet the same sticky end as your parents one of these days, Hope Potter. They were meddlesome fools, too." He turned to go. "Come, Dobby. I said, come."

But Dobby didn't move. He was holding up Hope's disgusting, slimy sock, and looking at it as though it were a priceless treasure.

"Master has given a sock." The elf said in wonderment. "Master gave it to Dobby."

"What's that? What did you say?" Mr. Malfoy snapped.

"Got a sock. Master threw it, and Dobby caught it, and Dobby... Dobby is free." Lucius Malfoy stood frozen, staring at the elf. Then he lunged at Hope.

"You've lost me my servant, girl!" But Dobby shouted:

"You shall not harm Hope Potter!" There was a loud bang and Mr. Malfoy was thrown backward. He crashed down the stairs, three at a time, landing in a crumpled heap on the landing below. He got up, his face livid, and pulled out his wand, but Dobby raised a long, threatening finger. "You shall go now. You shall not touch Hope Potter. You shall go now."

Lucius Malfoy had no choice. With a last, incensed stare at the pair of them, he swung his cloak around him and hurried out of sight.

"Hope Potter freed Dobby!" The elf said shrilly, gazing up at Hope, moonlight from the nearest window reflected in his orb-like eyes. "Hope Potter set Dobby free!"

"It was the least I could do, Dobby." Hope told him, squatting down to be level with the elf. "Just promise never to try and save my life again."

The elf's ugly brown face split suddenly into a wide, toothy smile. Hope had never seen a disgusting sock make someone so happy before. She couldn't help but smile as Dobby pulled the sock on his own foot with shaking hands.

"I've just got one question, Dobby. You told me all this had nothing to do with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, remember? Well-."

"It was a clue, ma'am." Dobby told her, his eyes widening, as though this was obvious. "Was giving you a clue. The Dark Lord, before he changed his name, could be freely named, you see?"

"Right..." Hope agreed slowly. "Well, I'd better go. There's a feast and my friend Hermes should be awake by now-." Dobby threw his arms around Hope's middle and hugged her.

"Hope Potter is greater by far than Dobby knew!" He sobbed. "Farewell, Hope Potter!" And with a final loud crack, Dobby disappeared.


End file.
